Fuse Pockets Additional Series B+ Funds, Strengthens Ambition to Regional Market

Insurtech startup Fuse today (13/12) announced additional funding in a series B+ round with a total value of more than $25 million (approximately 363 billion Rupiah).

This round was led by a global investor who specializes in raising funds for fintech with anonymity, as well as support from previous investors such as East Ventures (Growth Fund), GGV Capital, eWTP, and EMTEK.

Over the past six months, Fuse has closed three Series B funding rounds of total over $50 million (approximately 725 billion Rupiah). In other words, cementing Fuse’s position in the ranks of startup centaur.

Will Use Investor Funds for Expansion

The fresh funds raised by the company will be used to bring the Fuse platform to more countries in Southeast Asia. The company currently has more than 460 employees, with branch offices in Indonesia, Vietnam and China.

Fuse’s Founder & CEO Andy Yeung said, “I’m delighted that Fuse has received recognition from global-scale fintech investors in the midst of the rapid competition in insurtech in Southeast Asia.”

The company is excited to gain access and insight from other fintech and insurtech portfolio companies in this global network.

He continued, according to the report he cited, this year Southeast Asia’s middle class is predicted to grow to 350 million consumers with $300 billion in income and increasingly digital literacy.

According to him, Fuse is well-positioned to enter this large, under-penetrated insurance market through its unique technology platform, which provides a variety of distribution channels according to consumer needs.

With the trust of investors, insurance companies, business partners and end-customers, Fuse will continue to do its best to develop the most affordable and customized insurance products.

“We strongly believe that digital insurance transformation can help more people get insurance protection, and hopefully insurance penetration rates can increase substantially in the years to come in Indonesia and Southeast Asia.”

Since operating in 2017, Fuse has taken an application approach to enable insurance sales with a B2A (Business to Agent/Broker) business model.

The company has a comprehensive business model, namely B2A, B2C comparison, B2B2C (micro insurance and financial institute), which allows it to help partners distribute insurance products with affordable operating costs to end-customers.

There are more than 60 thousand marketers/partners who use the Fuse Pro application to market insurance products. Fuse also collaborates with more than 40 insurance companies, ranging from general insurance companies to life insurance companies, which supports Fuse to provide more than 300 insurance products for end-customers.

Since the third quarter of 2021, Fuse has been officially appointed by Tokopedia as a strategic insurtech partner to provide all general insurance products for Tokopedia users.

As of last September, Fuse’s gross premium income (Gross Written Premium/GWP) has exceeded IDR 1 trillion, making Fuse the largest insurtech company in Indonesia.

Agency’s Vital Role

Actually, insurtech startups currently also have agency services to boost sales of insurance products through agents (B2B) in addition to retail channels (B2C). PasarPolis has PasarPolis Partners and Qoala with Qoala Plus Partners.

However, both of them focus from retail first to business, while Fuse is the opposite. There is nothing wrong with these two business segments because the spirit is the same, namely wanting to increase the penetration of insurance products in Indonesia.

Agents are at the forefront of insurance companies in spurring business. According to data from the Indonesian Life Insurance Association (AAJI), this channel contributed to 36.1% of the total life insurance premium income until the third quarter of 2020.

Then, followed by bancassurance line 46.95% and telemarketing line 1.88%, and another 15.06%. In total, the number of licensed insurance agents rose 2.1% to 635,326 people during the period.

AAJI Executive Director Togar Pasaribu said, for life insurance companies, agents are like fresh blood. If you don’t do recruitment, it will endanger the company that adopts the agency strategy.