EP 112 – Adrit Raha – CEO at Symbo – The Disciplined Pursuit of Doing Less

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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.

Guest
Adrit Raha

Adrit is the CO-FOUNDER & CO-CEO at Symbo, one of the fastest growing insurtech’s in the region. His focus is scaling the technology platform globally with partners across India, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia. The platform supports agents, TPA’s, brokers, corporates and insurers in the seamless purchase, distribution and administration of insurance across India and Southeast Asia. Prior to joining Symbo, Adrit brings over 16 years' experience having worked with Global insurers across multiple markets and most recently leading a health-tech start up (Vivant) which was merged in to Symbo.

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The Asia InsurTech Podcast spoke with Adrit Raha, a co-founder and co-CEO of Symbo, about how InsurTechs can help insurance incumbents to digitize along the value chain.

Michael Waitze
Hi, this is Michael Waitze and welcome back to the Asia InsurTech Podcast. This is the only podcast in Asia focused on insurance that gives entrepreneurs, thought leaders and investors a platform to discuss how technology is reshaping the insurance industry in Asia. And it is definitely reshaping the insurance industry in Asia. Today, I am joined by Adrit Raha, a co-founder and co-CEO of Symbo. Adrit, it’s great to have you on the show today. How are you doing?

Adrit Raha
I’m really good. Thanks, Michael. And good morning to you and good to be here. Thanks for having me.

Michael Waitze
Thank you for doing it. Did I get your name right? After all?

Adrit Raha
Absolutely.

Michael Waitze
Okay, let’s just jump right into this. What do you think is the biggest trend in InsurTech in Asia? and insurance as well? You can do both?

Adrit Raha
You know, I think of it, if I take a step back for a minute, right? I mean, you start with understanding the landscape, which is, you know, you’ve got the broader Asia, where we’re seeing double digit growth, we’re seeing, you know, sub 2%, penetration, and a whole lot of friction. So, you know, when you start thinking of those components, you know, the biggest trend from from my perspective is really about how do you bring financial inclusion? How do you make it easy? How do you reduce the friction? And how do you do it in a digital first manner? And I think that’s really what we’re seeing emerging in the recent past.

Michael Waitze
Got it? And actually, could you give me a little bit of your background just so I can understand how you’ve come into all this?

Adrit Raha
Yeah, of course. So I came from the world of traditional insurance. Interestingly, I worked with AIG, and prior to that Royal and Sun Alliance, okay, did work across multiple markets, across multiple roles, and landed up in Singapore in 2016. Following which, I got into leading a healthtech startup, where the healthtech startup was largely working on digitalizing, the entire sort of healthcare landscape primarily for insurer and in some cases for healthcare providers. And then we brought that business in as you as you, as you’re aware, as part of the recent fundraise. We merged that business into Symbo. And here we are.

Michael Waitze
I didn’t realize that you were part of that from the beginning. But that’s really we can talk about that as well. I will get to that, for sure. Yeah. Because that’s really interesting. And I should congratulate you, obviously, because you’ve been in the news, your company’s been in the news for your recent round of funding.

Adrit Raha
That’s right.

Michael Waitze
Before we talk about what we’re gonna do with that money, you like how I use the royal we, like I’m involved? Before we talk about how that money is going to get deployed, can you just run me through the process of raising money? Because I always talk to people about this, right? Like, you couldn’t have just decided, at the end of February, you’re gonna raise money and then go out and raise it in March, this must have been in the works for, I would say at least six months, just based on my experience. How do you raise money during COVID? And you’ve raised a decent amount of money too right?

Adrit Raha
That’s right. That’s right. So Michael, I think there’s no, there’s no straight answer to that. And I think there’s no one right answer, either, I think comes with, you know, the pains of perseverance. and that’s what we’ve had to go through, you know, to demonstrate to our investors that we are really credible business to support, and we’ve got the right vision and strategies in place. So you know, to answer your question, it’s sometimes longer than six months, can go over a year or multiple years. And that’s really how it transpired. So we went through the process of, you know, multiple discussions with existing investors and some new investors that ultimately came on board, initially in the seed capacity. And then all of them came on board in the series A round, and we were able to introduce some some new flagship investors at that point, who came in to lead around. So highest level answer is never easy, takes a lot of time and effort. It’s a lot of bandwidth. And it’s amazing as we begin to enjoy the glory for a few minutes, right? We start thinking about really two components as we look forward, which is, you know, get the operating rhythm right of the business, but then also start thinking about what’s that next investor discussion that we need to have?

Michael Waitze
And I just want to, again, before we jump into that, I’m really curious about getting people to invest from another region into a company into Asia. And the reason why I ask is because one of the reasons why I started doing this podcasting is because when we went out to raise money for companies in Southeast Asia and spoke to investors in Silicon Valley, they always said to us, we don’t have enough visibility on what’s happening in Asia. So it must, yes, something intrinsic about your business. That’s different, that you could go to Silicon Valley virtually in a time of COVID, where everything was happening over Zoom or Google Meet or something like that and get good investors from the US to put money into your business.

Adrit Raha
Yeah, I mean, like I said, you know that it’s not a fixed recipe, I think these things, you know, they really do take its own course. I think we’ve been fortunate to have some of the biggest names, either from Silicon Valley, China, here in Singapore, really support our raise, right? And yeah, we went through processes of multiple Zoom calls, you know, whether it was demos or due diligence, and really deep dives into sort of existing metrics, future, you know, projections and how we really sort of structuring our strategy to hit those. So yeah, not easy at all. And I think the question that you asked, which is perhaps a bit more broader around how do you really attract investment from Silicon Valley or perhaps, outside APAC? Also not easy, because what we see is unless they have either exposure or access, they are a bit skeptical of coming into this part of the world. So yeah, so one of the things that at least I’ve learned is to be really honest about where this side of the world is going. Right. And once you started looking at the growth numbers, the opportunity of really what is out there. I think that is the initial hook, that is usually helpful when you’re having a conversation with some of the larger investors outside the region.

Michael Waitze
I wonder if they’re surprised when you actually tell them what the growth potential is like, because if you’re sitting in the US market, or in the European market, they just see is like taking the pie away from somebody else, as opposed to the pie growing and taking as much of that as you possibly can as well. It’s a different kind of activity. Yeah,

Adrit Raha
That’s right. So I think, you know, now people are getting pretty savvy. Right. So the folks are beginning to understand the real opportunity, but with that comes complexity, right? I mean, you look at markets like India and China, which are the larger ones across APAC. I mean, it comes with so much complexity, be it localization, regulation, you know, just doing business in the local market needs its own, you know, understanding. So, you know, it isn’t the easiest region to sort of navigate through but without a doubt, the most exciting from my perspective.

Michael Waitze
Sure. I mean, and I want to get away from this in a second. But, you know, in the United States, every state, right, regulates its insurance in a different way. But everybody still speaks English. And there’s sort of a common theme there. Whereas in India and in China, and in Southeast Asia, you have language differences, cultural differences, regulatory differences, like you said, very complex, but the complexity means that the opportunity is bigger for those people to get back to your words, right, that can handle that complexity, and are persistent about pursuing it. Is that fair?

Adrit Raha
That’s absolutely right.

Michael Waitze
So you’ve raised this money, which is awesome. So congratulations again. And you did say let’s bask in the glory a little bit. But what I think that most people don’t understand is that capital raising is not the end, it’s actually the beginning of a much harder work. Because now, when you’re resource constrained business, you can say, well, we can’t do that. And we can’t do this, because we just don’t have the resources to do it. But after you raise money, everything I think gets harder, because now you have to make really tough choices about on what to focus and in what to invest.

Adrit Raha
Yes, yes, indeed. And that’s a really good point, Michael. So, you know, I was just, I’d like to echo perhaps something one investor said to me the other day, which was, you know, the disciplined pursuit of doing less? And you know, it’s really interesting, because as a startup, you get throwing about a million things on the wall and sort of seeing what sticks. And that’s the beauty of the startup experience. But I think as we start progressing, as we start raising capital, and really thinking about, which are the areas we want to double down on, you know, that’s, that’s sort of that inflection point we’re in right now, which is really cool, and really interesting. And to your point, it’s where do you double down? Where do you put that capital towards? You know, how do you focus your efforts? Because now it’s really about getting the work done? It’s head down and work down.

Michael Waitze
Exactly. I think there’s way much more pressure after you raise money then before in both of them are pressure packed. But I think it’s harder after you raise the capital, because now there’s an expectation on it, you have to accomplish a lot of stuff. So what are you going to do? What are you going to focus on and in what are you going to invest?

Adrit Raha
Yeah, so I mean, we were quite clear that, you know, we’re getting a platform led strategic approach to our to our business, I think you’ve already seen that across some of the news articles, you know, growth strategy is focusing on India and Southeast Asia. So it’s really about doubling down and ensuring we get our technology and product components, you know, enhanced, and we started looking at some some senior folks in the region that can really help us scale our business, in the region that we want to want to double down. So simplest level Its product and distribution, but at its more complex level is really understanding the nuances of what is that next innovative sort of disruptive approach that we need to think about from a product roadmap perspective, and really put that down and get that right. And then, of course, identify the right market and then really go after both clients and partnerships that we want to pursue.

Michael Waitze
How is your team distributed? Today? You have people in Singapore, you have people in India as well.

Adrit Raha
Yeah. So our primary focus from a business perspective has been India, because that’s really where the bulk of the people and well, I guess, you think of scale, India’s huge right , so yeah, so we’ve got, you know, we’ve got significant members of the team based in India. We’ve got our lean team in Singapore. And we now have a few people representing us in markets like Malaysia, and even Dubai. So these are folks that are just advocates for us largely going out and sort of understanding what’s happening in the market. And if there’s opportunities sort of scale there.

Michael Waitze
Yeah, the Middle East, right actually ends up being and I will be specific about the UAE. So Dubai, Abu Dhabi, the Emirates, and Qatar, just all those that whole area. Right. And that being really interesting, because very wealthy, but also , excuse me, filled with people that aren’t from there that need insurance products.

Adrit Raha
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. So it’s hugely complex there. Right. So you’ve got the inefficient standard inefficiency of insurance, distribution and region, and you’ve got the complexity of multiple cultures sort of amalgamating into those countries. And, and yeah, it does have a lot of capital to provide. So it is an interesting opportunity. It’s early days for us, we’re still trying to understand the landscape. I’ve had some personal exposure in the Middle East. So I do get that space. But just see how we progress.

Michael Waitze
Yeah, it should be really interesting. And, again, another big market, I forget how many people are in the GCC? It’s like 45-50 million people, but additive to what’s going on in the rest of Asia, and obviously, in the rest of India, which is huge. Can you talk to me about? You said you’re taking a platform led strategic approach, right? Can you talk a little bit about how the platform works? And what makes Symbo different from other companies that are trying to do this?

Adrit Raha
Yeah, sure. So I think, you know, from our perspective, we firmly believe that we want to work with incumbents. So that’s, that’s our ultimate thesis as well, that we want to work with incumbents. And by that what we mean is, you know, we’re focused on offering our platform to insurers, to brokers, to TPAs, or brands, to really enable them to take their distribution strategy and insurance product strategy to market quickly. And that’s really the core to what we do. And we’ve been quite successful in partnering with some large insurers in the regions, large brands in India, where we’re able to sort of enable this insurance distribution strategy for them. And then again, if you take a step back and think about the problems that you solve and doing this, it’s all about reducing that friction. It’s all about financial inclusion, it’s all about ensuring that there’s speed to market and enhancing that clunky technology that insurers, you know, typically have.

Michael Waitze
Why is this, because you’ve mentioned this word financial inclusion, or this phrase financial inclusion a few times now, why is this so important to you?

Adrit Raha
Coming from a market like India, and then having been exposed to the broader Southeast Asia, I think it’s, it’s very blatant, when you look at the lack of financial inclusion, the lack of I mean, the amount that the market is underinsured, right. And you see this and you just look at sort of the opportunity, which is, you know, there is a, there’s a component of financial gain, but there’s a component of even social as an angle. And I know, Michael, you’re quite passionate about that. So, yeah, and if you think about what what we’re solving here ultimately, is really about that is how do you, you know, in one example, that I love to code, which is, you know, how do you solve for bite-sized insurance products and do it in a manner that, you know, is meaningful for the customer, but it’s efficient from a distribution standpoint, because right, a bite-sized product cannot have any friction, otherwise, it just becomes inefficient. So, you know, we did that with India’s largest spectacle manufacturer. And interestingly, you know, we saw a really positive response from both the brand as well as the end customer.

Michael Waitze
But what does that mean? So how can you tell me how that works specifically?

Adrit Raha
Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, what we were able to do is really look at a bite-sized product relevant for the customer at the time they were purchasing a spectacle, right. And if you think about it, you see parallel products similar to Apple Care, you see, you know, Samsung in similar spaces. But with me today is it’s basically a warranty and damaged product, where the customer is offered the product at the time of buying a pair of spectacles. Now, what’s interesting about this is the actual end-to-end integration that Symbo has designed and pulled together which is straight through integrated process with the actual underwriting carrier, a complete straight through integrated process with the point of sale platform for the spectacle distributor with an inbuilt communication layer. So if you look at the customer experience, the customer is doing nothing different. The spectacle store clerk literally checks the box. And next thing you know, the policy is delivered in real time to the customer’s mobile phone with the ability to download a wallet and store it and all the fun stuff. Now, that’s the beginning. Now what happens thereafter is obviously we’re able to drive communication to the customer appropriately be it about more information, be it about claims processes, whatever, right. But most importantly, what I call the moment of truth is when a customer actually has a problem. This is where we found that, you know, offering our platform again, enabling, you know the ability to take a photograph of the spectacles, assessing the damage, reading the serial number through OCR technology, all in real time, validating that it is indeed the right spectacle with the point of sale platform, it is indeed the right person claiming to doing the necessary KYC fraud checks as well. And then ultimately enabling an adjudicator to approve, deny, or perhaps ask for some more information in real time, which ultimately means the customer sitting in in the store, can buy their replacements spectacle at the same time they walk in. And how cool is that? Right from a user experience perspective?

Michael Waitze
Yeah, I mean, I literally just so my mind is racing to try to figure out all the small technology components. And my next question is, how do you integrate? Because, again, from the customer’s perspective, right, they walk in to buy a pair of glasses, the clerk is not necessarily like, you know, an IIT graduate and a technologist and the insurance company doesn’t even know that person’s in the store.

Adrit Raha
That’s right.

Michael Waitze
But somehow you’ve built what I call non-trivial, complex technology platform that allows that person to go in there buy the glasses, you know, that they’ve been recommended to by the clerk, like you said, just checks a box. But in the background, the platform is doing all of this non-trivial stuff to make sure that when it’s time to actually make a claim, or just to exchange the glasses, that it’s already communicated with the insurance company, that it already has enough data, that it’s already done the fraud check, like there are all these things that are taking place.
Which to the consumer, is frictionless, like you said. The clerk doesn’t care. And the insurance company is not even really involved? Because the technology is just disambiguating the entire process to take care of that. Is that right?

Adrit Raha
That is absolutely spot on. I think you summarized that better than I did, Michael.

Michael Waitze
Stop it. No, but I’m thinking, and remember, I come out of a I come out of a trading background, right? So I sat down with technologists to map out step by step by step, every thing that we did when we traded, also built the system so that if a new trading mechanism occurred, we didn’t have to rewrite the whole system, we just had to add another component. Right?

Adrit Raha
Yeah. And that is exactly it. Right? It’s the fact that we’ve been able to really think about the insurance problems, right, the problems of the process, the problems of the customer, the problems of the partner, the problems with the insurer, right. And then really solve for it, in that manner, has been, I think, one of the strong points for us. And of course, it boils down to the kind of technology it’s gotta be microservices. We call low code, we want to move to what I called no-code, and I don’t even know if that’s really a thing. But you know, it is the new world of DIY type technology capability. Right? That’s really what we want to get to and that, that that’s what I was saying, doubling down on the product and tech pieces as well as we as we think about our future.

Michael Waitze
I love this. You know, one of the things that people said to us back in May of 2019, when we started this show was, you know, insurance just isn’t sexy, and nobody really wants to talk about it. Now. We just insanely exciting conversations about how technology is really being used to do this stuff. And I get excited. I have to slow myself down and I think I can feel it in the conversations that how they’ve changed actually over the last couple of years.

Adrit Raha
Yeah, it’s moving in the right direction. I still don’t think it’s actually enough, right. I mean, I’m a who I say this a lot too. So clearly, we’re thinking alike. But I was sitting with someone yesterday. And interestingly, I said, you know, banking has become sexy insurance still has a ways to go. And I think it will, I think we’re seeing, you know, small things like, what we have attempted to do, and perhaps some of our friendly startup, you know, competitors in the region and the world. I think , it’s quite nice to see that that revolution happening.

Michael Waitze
I’m excited. I want to ask you a little bit more about financial inclusion, as it relates to financial literacy. And the reason why is because you the Symbo webpage, or website, I should say, actually has what I consider to be a relatively active blog section, where you’re publishing content, and you’re not doing it for fun. Right? So what and it’s pretty active. I’ve been watching. So what’s the point? Or what do you as a team think the point is? And is that part of that move from literacy into inclusion, and then into bigger products?

Adrit Raha
Yeah, so if you’re absolutely spot on, I think of it slightly, I use slightly different terms to define exactly what you said. So I use access and awareness typically, right. And I believe, you know, awareness is the initial driver, before you can start, you know, getting to the access problem. And really, that is what we do. So whether it’s using the blogs, or whether it’s using opportunities to educate our, you know, distribution partners, as well. It’s all about driving that information, driving the training, driving the awareness. So I’ll give you another example, Michael, you know, our, agency platform, right, which we give to our incumbents in India and in the world has an inbuilt you know, training module. And really, that’s designed to ensure that A, there’s a regulatory requirement, obviously, in India, you’ve got to get trained and certified. But it’s also used for subsequent trainings and for retraining and for potential learning and development. And it’s all done remotely. So, you know, we believe that it’s not just about literacy to the end customer, but also to the folks that are distributing a product.

Michael Waitze
Oh, sure. I mean, look, there’s nothing more frustrating than asking a salesperson in any vertical, you know, any question and having them say, Oh, I don’t know the answer to that, or I need to get back to you.
Yeah. Particularly for a financial product where it could be urgent, like there’s urgency around it as well.

Adrit Raha
That’s right. Absolutely.

Michael Waitze
Can we talk a little bit about like, it’s been a busy year for your team? Can you talk a little bit about the acquisition or the merging in of the digital health platform? What’s it called? Vivant?

Adrit Raha
That’s right. That’s right. So yeah,I mean, that’s part of the series A round, you know, we we saw the opportunity, with Vivant, you know, Vivant brings a comprehensive and sort of a complimentary sort of offering in terms of digital health offering to our own platform. And the other thing, you know, which is really important is it has a lot of overlap in terms of the types of customers that we were working with. So the way we see it is, you know, Vivant just partnering already with a whole bunch of insurers and TPAs, across the broader region, India and Southeast Asia. And that just allows us to, to deepen our client base across the region. So yeah, it’s been it’s been very good that the platform itself is super cool. It’s complementary nature. And we’re really excited to see how we bring it all together.

Michael Waitze
just for people that may not know, right, what does a digital health platform actually do? What’s its purpose?

Adrit Raha
Yeah, of course. So I think, you know, in its ultimate sense, a digital health platform allows, you know, an insurer for example, to allow the end users be in policyholders or generic users, the ability to identify sort of health risks, the ability to sort of track you know, some of the issues and I’ll dig into both of these in a bit, and then ultimately manage their health. So it’s really, you know, a digital front door for your health, it’s your self-care, it’s your buddy app. And what it does is you know, you can you can take some assessments, you can understand how you’re doing, where you are, and sort of gives you a benchmark, you had the ability to store and digitize your records, you have the ability to track your health through, you know, the integration with Apple and Google Fit, the ability to search and book you know, if you want to access, you know, certain healthcare providers, and then ultimately manage your health better be it by telemedicine or be it by a condition management programs. And all of that is brought to you by sort of a cohesive platform that we would, you know, typically white label for insurers or tpas to allow them to offer that to their customers.

Michael Waitze
And is the idea here or as part of it that, as a user of a digital health platform, I can better manage my health. But also, if I share, if I choose to share that data with Symbo, or with an insurance company, that then they can utilize that data to provide better services to me. Even better quality insurance, because it can maybe be cheaper if I’m healthier, that kind of thing.

Adrit Raha
Absolutely. So the the ultimate thesis is that, and interestingly, we’ve seen a life company, and one of the largest health insurers in India, use our platform for just that, and one is keeping it. So I’ll give you two example, life business is choosing to keep a very simple offering to the customer saying, Hey, you know, we’re gonna offer you a healthy week challenge, you do it for, you know, 36 weeks in the year during your policy period, and you get eligibility for a significant discount at the time of renewal. Right. And similarly, the health insurer is saying, Hey, you know, I’ll introduce condition specific programs for you. So as you might diabetic, I get offered a diabetes program for a specific period. If I successfully complete that, again, I have access to either awards or discount on premium.so it is exactly that, I think, a and that’s what makes it really exciting. I guess. So yeah.

Michael Waitze
Yeah, I mean, the combination of those two things, obviously, is really important. But they’re the whole thesis is based on this idea that there’s at least at the start a small data platform, but hopefully, as you grow a massive data platform. How do you intend to manage all of that data that you’re accumulating? So the data engineering side of it, and then the data analytics side of it as well?

Adrit Raha
Yeah, I mean, first, I should say very carefully, right. But I think it’d be a nice part of the journey that we’re embarking on, we’ve done some good work and understanding, you know, setting up data lakes and making sure that the data is beginning to get pulled in and looked at appropriately. It’s now about enhancing that capability, automating some of that capability. Really, right,. You drive insights out of the data, because data is data. At the end of the day, it’s all about appropriate insights on the back of the data that you collect. So it’s interesting that you asked the question, I think we’re again, at that point in time that, you know, one of the things that we’re going to have to double down on is exactly that, which is, you know, we’ve learned how we’ve been able to access and gain data. Now, what do we do about the data? Right. And to your point, I think it’s going to come down to some really good data scientists, and obviously, some some AI ML technology that can help. You know, bring that to life.

Michael Waitze
Yeah, absolutely. And the ML ops side of it, as well as super important. Most people forget about it, but still super important.
What is the future look like for you? In other words, as you look out into just the rest of 2021? But what are you looking at?

Adrit Raha
Yes, I think it’s quite clear to us. So it’s, as I said, you know, taking that step back and saying discipline, pursuit of doing less, it’s really about focus. And what I mean by focus is it, we quite clear, we’ve got a really good platform that allows us to offer incumbents, the ability to digitalize their entire distribution process. And it’s about us now, scaling that in the regions that were participating in, and really getting that right. So that’s, that’s the first thing that we want to do. Right, as part of that strategy, you know, as we think of brands, as a specific component within incumbents, we’ve seen the opportunity as well to double down there where it may not just be the platform, but we might choose to own the entire value chain. And you know, the spectacle plays is the example there. So that’s what we want to now really scale as well. So we want to get a few more partners, get some more customers through the door. Really think about monetizing that base, really think about the components around friction, financial inclusion, and and see how we can scale that as well. so if you ask me, it’s a it’s a platform led strategy, doubling down on distribution as a core area, and really thinking about incumbents, and how do you solve their problems?

Michael Waitze
Okay, and the last thing I want to ask you before I let you go is, you know, I mentioned older that I feel like the conversation around insurance as a whole has changed just based on you know, I’ve done a lot of these conversations, and I don’t think it’s getting sexier. But I think there’s another part of this conversation has changed as well and I want your insights here. I think two or three years ago, if an InsurTech showed up at an insurance company’s door and said we’d like to it was just like the door might have slammed because they were just so afraid of sort of competition part of this the thing that like I want to take all your business away and you know, smarter, faster, stronger, bigger, whatever, then you can feel like that conversation has now changed from not fear but more into cooperative like. I see it, you’re building some great technology and I can use that technology. How can we work together? i use the term partnership a ton during this conversation? Do you feel like that’s changed as well. So now, when you show up, they’re like, come on in.

Adrit Raha
Yeah, yeah. So I mean, you know, I’ll give you my own experience when I was sitting on the other side of the fence. You know, when I was at AIG, I experienced talking to a lot of startups and truth be told, at that point, I don’t think as a behemoth insurance company, big beat anybody else. You no one even knew how to navigate through the landscape of startups. Right. And that was a reality couple years ago. And then for some people still reality, right. But I think the beauty of what we are seeing is exactly what you’re mentioning, I think we’re finding pockets of insurers, and pockets within those insurers that are mandated to start experimenting. And we’re beginning to see that interest come through. And it’s a lovely journey, as I look at it, which is, it’s clearly an evolutionary journey, where we’re seeing a change happening, we’re seeing acceptance, we’re seeing some resistance, we’re seeing some disruption, we’re seeing some challenges. And with all this, this is where the real innovation will happen. So, you know, enabling incumbents, from my perspective has been absolutely core to what we do. And as part of that strategy, you know, looking at this part of the world, and again, this is probably a coined term already, but phygital right, is an area that I personally feel, personally believe is the area to solve for, which is

Michael Waitze
what does that mean?

Adrit Raha
Yeah. So how do you how do you make the component of physical and digital? And the reason I say that is, you know, marks like India and Southeast Asia, you know, as excited as we are about a completely digital solution. You know, the human interaction is inevitable. And that’s what

Michael Waitze
Sorry, I just said, it’s never gonna go away. The human interaction part is never leaving, I think, right?

Adrit Raha
That’s right. That’s right.

Michael Waitze
I interrupted you. Go ahead.

Adrit Raha
No, no, that is,that is what I was gonna say.

Michael Waitze
I will let you go. I cannot thank you enough for doing this. Adrit Raha, a co-founder and a co-CEO of Symbo. This was awesome.

Adrit Raha
Absolutely, Michael, and thank you so much for having me. Really. It’s been a real pleasure to be part of this podcast and look forward to connecting soon.

Find more episode with the team from Symbo here.

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