Lifepal raises $9 million in Series A funding to make financial protection more accessible in Indonesia

Lifepal, the largest digital direct-to-consumer (D2C) insurance marketplace in Indonesia, announced it has raised an oversubscribed $9 million Series A funding round led by ProBatus Capital with participation from Cathay Innovation, Insignia Ventures Partners, ATM Capital and Hustle Fund, bringing the total capital raised to $12 million. The company will use the new financing to improve its product and customer experience. 

Lifepal was founded in 2019 by former Lazada executives Giacomo Ficari, Nicolo Robba, and experienced tech professionals Benny Fajarai and Reza Muhammad with the vision of making financial protection accessible to everyone.  In a country where 270 million people still rely on outdated traditional agents for their insurance needs, the company is quickly becoming Indonesia’s number one online insurance destination where customers can easily compare, save and claim insurance policies online. As a one-stop platform offering over 300 policies across health, life, automotive, property, and travel, Lifepal has more than 50 insurance partners which include some of the region’s largest players.

”During the pandemic, we experienced a strong increase in demand due to heightened awareness of health risks combined with the availability of our online platform during a time when in-person visits were avoided by most people,” said founder and CEO Giacomo Ficari. “Lifepal is addressing the evolving needs of the modern consumer by reducing the pain points associated with traditional agents with a full digitalization of the value chain for a superior customer experience.”

With a growing middle-class and the rapid adoption of digital services, Indonesia is one of the fastest-growing insurance markets globally and is expected to reach $58B by 2025 according to Munich Re Economic Research. Yet, traditional insurance agents have been slow to innovate to meet the needs of the new digital customer who demands transparency, convenience, and access to a large selection of products.

Ficari continued, “We have entered the market at an exciting time: consumer behaviors are shifting online and we have the rare opportunity to continue to scale our traffic & branding to become the dominant online destination for consumers for the years to come. We look forward to partnering with our new investors that share the same long-term vision and passion for insurance and best-in-class customer experience.”

“We invested in Lifepal because of their potential to change the way the Indonesian consumer buys insurance,” said Ramneek Gupta, founder and managing partner of ProBatus Capital.  “They built a platform that uniquely serves their consumers by incorporating educational content that helps customers understand their needs and an online marketplace that enables them to pick the right solutions from the comfort of their homes. Finally, their contact center model allows consumers to engage with live agents to address potential questions and aid in payments and claims processing. We believe this three-pronged approach, tailored specifically to the needs of the Indonesian market, is driving the impressive growth that Lifepal has demonstrated since its launch last year.” 

By leveraging data from its financial content and community platform, the largest in Indonesia with four million monthly visitors, Lifepal is able to provide accurate recommendations to consumers by matching them with the right product and customer support representative. In addition, being a direct-to-consumer distributor enables Lifepal to own the relationship with the customer across the long customer-lifetime-value typical of the insurance industry with claim support, renewals, and cross-selling. This has led to 12x year-over-year expansion, growing 20% month-over-month, with incredibly capital-efficient unit economics.

“The insurance market in Indonesia is incredibly untapped and underserved with less than two percent of Indonesians having insurance, thus making it ripe for a digital disruption,” said Rajive Keshup, Director at Cathay Innovation. “The Lifepal team has previous experience building one of the largest marketplaces in Southeast Asia and is now replicating their success in the insurance space to solve a meaningful issue.  At Cathay Innovation, we back bold founders who dare to disrupt, and lead massive shifts in global markets and are grateful to partner with the team as they execute on their mission to make financial protection available to everyone.”