Openspace’s OSV+ and Paris-based investor La Maison also took part in the round, having previously participated in Igloo’s Series B and Series B+ fundraisers respectively, thereby reaffirming their confidence in the company’s strong business fundamentals. Openspace’s investment in this round comes via its mid-stage fund, OSV+, which is focused on the Series C and D rounds of transformative technology companies in Southeast Asia.
The Pre-Series C round comes just 10 months after Igloo’s previous Series B+ fundraise led by BlueOrchard through its InsuResilience Investment Fund II. In total, the company has raised US$100 million. Igloo’s recent scores include two innovative offerings.
In 2022, it launched Ignite by Igloo, a digital platform that enhances the productivity of sales intermediaries in Vietnam and Indonesia. Ignite by Igloo works with 22,000 sales intermediaries and agent partners and aims to close 2023 with 50,000 agents as it expands into other markets. In line with Igloo’s purpose of improving financial inclusion for underserved segments, over 60% of Ignite by Igloo’s intermediary partners are female.
Another innovation for Igloo is its Weather Index Insurance, a pioneering blockchain-based parametric insurance for farmers. The product has drawn interest from partners in Vietnam and across Southeast Asia for its potential to greatly benefit the agricultural sector. Despite its novelty in a highly traditional sector, Weather Index Insurance has already been adopted by thousands of farmers since launching last November and covers 20,000 hectares of coffee and padi farms.
According to reports, Igloo has facilitated over 500 million policies and aims to double its Gross Written Premium (GWP) from 2022. As of today, it has also actively established over 75 partnerships across six countries, expanding its product offerings to cover consumer finance, e-commerce, and logistics.
In August 2023, Igloo was named ‘Insurtech of the Year’ by the Asia Fintech Awards. The new funding will go towards both horizontal and vertical M&A opportunities – having added intermediary licenses across SEA this year, in addition to its license in Indonesia. It will also increase its workforce by 20% across engineering, commercial, strategy and insurance-focused 2 / 3 verticals. On the product and value chain enhancement aspect, it looks to double down on motor, health, climate-related products, underwriting and claims digitization and AI and blockchain technologies.
Speaking about the round, Matthieu Baret, Managing Partner – Venture, and Albert Shyy, Managing Director, at Eurazeo, said: “With our investments in China, Indonesia, India, and Singapore, we’re extending our footprint with the ambition to become a leading player in Asia. We have been following Igloo for some time now and have been impressed by their evolution into a diversified insurance platform across channels and products. The insurance market in Southeast Asia is still very underpenetrated and we believe Igloo is in a strong position to help solve this by making insurance more easily accessible and understandable for consumers.”
Raunak Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO at Igloo, added: “The support from our investors is testament to Igloo’s steady growth and resilience amidst macro headwinds and a validation of our strategy. We are the only insurtech player in Southeast Asia with a robust profit and loss statement, a diverse multi-product portfolio, and an extensive distribution line.”
