Igloo closes US$36M Pre-Series C fundraise with 50% valuation increase

INDUSTRY.co.id - Singapore - Regional insurtech Igloo today announced that it has closed a US$36 million Pre-Series C funding round. Global investment firm Eurazeo, through its insurtech fund backed by the insurer BNP Paribas Cardif, led the investment. Openspace and La Maison, who previously participated in Igloo's Series B and Series B+ fundraises, also joined in, reaffirming their confidence in the company's strong business fundamentals. Eurazeo invested through its insurtech fund focused on innovative technologies and business ideas disrupting the insurance industry, whilst 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.

Matthieu Baret, Managing Partner – Venture at Eurazeo shared: “We are thrilled to invest in Igloo with the insurer BNP Paribas Cardif. 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 with 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,” shared Albert Shyy, Managing Director, Eurazeo.

This latest round comes just 10 months after Igloo’s previous Series B+ fundraise led by BlueOrchard-managed InsuResilience Investment Fund II. In total, the company has raised US$100 million. Notably, Igloo’s Pre-Series C round closed at an increased valuation of 50 percent from its Series B+ round in 2022, as the company moves closer to profitability in 2024. Igloo is on track to double its 2022 Gross Written Premiums (GWP) at a low burn rate; its robust engineering core and data focus, the company’s path to profitability in 2024 is set.

"We're always thrilled when the opportunity arises to keep investing in a company at the mid-stage that we’ve previously backed – and Igloo’s recent growth and steps towards profitability have given us further confidence in the business’s ability to capture and expand the insurance market in Southeast Asia,” said Jessica Huang Pouleur, Partner, Openspace Ventures. “Our team has been actively involved in working with Igloo to this point, and those existing relationships will enable us to seamlessly continue adding operational and commercial value as the business integrates, acquires, and strengthens capabilities."

Asia's insurance market is brimming with untapped potential, especially in emerging economies like Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. Despite the rising adoption of insurance, many remain underinsured. This vast, underserved demographic has caught the attention of investors, with companies like Igloo standing out due to their innovative approach to the evolving landscape in these markets - addressing pain points across the insurance value chain for insurers, sales intermediaries, retailers and consumers.

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 per cent 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.

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 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.

Raunak Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO at Igloo, shared, “The support from our investors is a testament to Igloo’s steady growth and resilience amidst macro headwinds and a validation of our strategy. We are the only insurtech in Southeast Asia with a robust profit and loss (P&L) statement, a diverse multi-product portfolio, and an extensive distribution line.”