EP 82 – Cindy Kua – co-Founder & CEO of Sunday

21 Sep 2020Posted By Michael Waitze

Host

Michael Waitze

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

Cindy Kua

Cindy holds an LLB (Hons) from King’s College, London and a Distinction in M.Sc in Insurance and Risk Management from Cass Business School, London. Cindy led transformation projects of core operational functions within non-life insurance companies in Thailand and Indonesia. Cindy was an associate in the Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions practice of law firm, Rahmat Lim & Partners in association with Allen & Gledhill, Singapore where she was involved in several significant transactions relating to the financial services sector in Southeast Asia.

This episode is brought to you by:

In this episode, we talk to Cindy Kua, a co-Founder, and CEO of Thai-based InsurTech Sunday. The startup serves individuals and businesses as the “one-stop insurance shop” for digital healthcare, electronics, automotive and travel. Launched in Thailand in 2017, Sunday is now looking to expand into other markets in Southeast Asia. With the latest funding round, the startup starts its expansion in Indonesian.

What is remarkable, Cindy is the second generation in her family building an insurance company. Her father, Kua Sian Kooi, founded KSK insurance in Malaysia in 1991. The company is among the most successful general insurance companies in Malaysia. In Thailand, Cindy is now trying to capture the large market potential with the next generation of an insurance disruptor.

Sunday was able to leverage the existing insurance license from KSK’s branch in Thailand to build a fully digital InsurTech from scratch and focus on new forms of distribution. With the advantage of a greenfield market, Sunday was in a position to design and launch new products at a much faster speed compared to what would have been possible for the insurance incumbent. While KSK is a valuable partner, Sunday is working with other insurers in Thailand to underwrite different products, especially in the life insurance space.