Ep 09 – Alvin Cahyadi – Convergence Ventures – Investing in Asian InsurTech – Indonesian Edition

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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.

Alvin Cahyadi is an Investment Associate at Convergence Ventures, an Indonesia focused Venture Capital firm investing in high growth startups. Alvin is in charge of monitoring the FinTech sectors, which includes payments, lending, and insurance. Following the trend of InsurTech, Alvin has been the core insurance practice lead, spending a significant amount of time conducting market research and being involved in a few dealing rooms in the sector.

Alvin provides insights to the growing InsurTech trend particularly in Indonesia which includes enhanced distribution and new product creation.  He discusses the important role the internet has on supporting the growing capacity of this new type of insurance. He explains that the internet helps provide firms access to a wealth of data to create more personalized insurance policies.  InsurTech also helps shift customer behavior as they become more accustomed to insurance products.  Previously, potential customers may have seen the product as a threat or a scam due to a lack of information and knowledge.

In Alvin’s opinion, InsurTech is a B2B2C approach and it could become the potential solution for problems in Indonesia where insurances are mandatory but have not been perceived as beneficial.  Alvin also tackles the potential progression of the digital insurance landscape in Indonesia in which regulations play an essential part in the growth, following in the footsteps of foreign markets such as China which already has huge digital insurers.

(Author: Chadhaporn Angpraphapornchai)

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