AIP News RoundUp – Episode 39 – Theresa Blissing and Michael Waitze – Whoever Owns the Ecosystem Owns the World

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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.

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.

The first quarter of 2021 ends with more major InsurTech news. Zhong An Online, China’s first online insurer and InsurTech unicorn, has announced its results for 2020. The insurer ranked 9th for P&C insurers in China and passed breakeven with a reported USD 85MM in profit. 

FWD has launched an InsurTech and Takafultech accelerator programme in Malaysia and is welcoming 25 startups for the first round. Another insurance incumbent with an appetite for InsurTechs is Italian insurer Generali. In Hong Kong, Generali is partnering with YAS Digital on Hong Kong’s first passenger microinsurance solution. Find our episode with YAS co-founder Andy Ann here

In India, B2B2C InsurTech Riskcovry’s $5 million Series A funding and PolicyBazaar joins Paytm and Ola in a consortium to establish a new umbrella entity (NUEs). Following the success of the unified payment interface (UPI) and other digital payments systems in India launched by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to allow NUE bids in August 20201. Other companies in the race include Amazon, Facebook, and Google. 

In Singapore, the General Insurance Association Singapore (GIA Singapore), the Life Insurance Association, Singapore (LIA Singapore), and Integrated Health Information Systems (IhiS) have announced a Call-for-Proposal (CFP) to develop end-to-end health insurance claims platform2

Other companies mentioned in this episode: OneDegree, CoverHero

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