AIP News RoundUp – Episode 04 – Rahul Mathur and Theresa Blissing – October – A Super Interesting Proposition

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Theresa is the founder of the Asia InsurTech Podcast and a Thought Leader on innovation in insurance in Asia. She has worked for ten years for leading multinational insurers in Europe and Asia before turning to management consulting and venture building with the goal of transforming the insurance industry and helping shape its future in the region.

Michael Waitze worked in Global Finance for more than 20 years, employed by firms like Citigroup, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, primarily in Tokyo.  Michael lived and worked in Tokyo from February 1990 until December 2011.  Michael always maintained a particular focus on how technology could be used to make businesses more efficient and to drive P/L growth. Michael is a leader in the digital media space, building one of the biggest and fastest-growing podcast listener bases in the region.  His AsiaTechPodcast.com show has listeners in more than 170 countries and his company, Michael Waitze Media produces some of Asia’s most popular podcasts.

Rahul is the Startup lead at Accenture’s FinTech Innovation Lab in London. Prior to joining Accenture, he was an Insurance Product Manager at Laka Insurance, a London headquartered early stage InsurTech start-up which recently won at the British Insurance Awards 2019.  Rahul holds a master’s degree in Statistics from the University of Warwick. He is an Ambassador at the Asia InsurTech podcast.

Another busy month for InsurTech in Asia. Regulators across Asia are changing the game. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Thailand’s Office of Insurance Commission (OIC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to boost cooperation in insurance supervision. AIP already talked to the Secretary General of the OIC and the strategy of the Thai regulator in a special episode.

The Insurance Authority Hong Kong granted its first virtual general licence to Avo Insurance. Avo has the look and feel of a startup but is  51 percent owned by Asia Insurance, the general insurance arm of Hong Kong-listed Asia Financial Group. The remaining 49 percent is held by Zhang Lei, founder and chief executive of Hillhouse Capital

Again in the news, Singapore’s mover and shaker Axinan with the company’s rapid expansion across Southeast Asia and PingAn with another investment in Europe. This time the Chinese InsurTech leader together with Rasin invested in Joonko, the new digital financial portal from finleap. It is not the first time that PingAn has invested in a European company and Theresa, Michael and Rahul discuss Chinese investment strategies in the West.

And of course, Michael’s favorite topic, alternative distribution is again in the news with Amazon Pay and Airtel both in India.

Other companies mentioned in this episode:

Go! Insurance, Lazada, Lemonade, Plug and Play, Mobikwik, Igloo, Zhong AnZhong An Technologies, ICICI Prudential, Generali, Cosmos Direkt, Bowtie

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