Startup Insurtech PasarPolis Appoints Former Amazon Executive CTO

The insurance technology (insurtech) platform PasarPolis appointed Rajesh Kumar as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at the company.

Rajesh Kumar previously served as an executive at the US technology company, Amazon, and handled Software Development for more than 10 years. Previously he also had a career at Makemytrip.com.

In his press statement, Rajesh said he saw a great opportunity for technology to be a solution to the daily problems of Indonesian people.

Among other things, to protect people’s daily activities through an insurance process that is easier, faster, and more enjoyable.

“The experience of buying insurance is psychologically very different than when buying a consumer item even when saving,” said Rajesh, quoted Friday (11/2/2022).

According to him, this is because consumers do not immediately hold physical products in their hands or instant benefits. Moreover, the process from purchase to claim is often not easy.

“This reduces the potential for insurance to have a huge impact which can be a game-changer in a person’s life, especially when facing a crisis,” Rajesh added.

Perception About Insurance

Rajesh said that the challenge of changing the wrong perception of insurance is in fact difficult to overcome conventionally, so the presence of insurtech technology is here to bring positive changes.

He added that as one of the countries with the largest population in the world, dealing with problems in Indonesia on such a large scale would be more complicated and even impossible, if we did not utilize technology.

However, according to Rajesh, most of the startups in Indonesia were founded by the nation’s children who have very good local wisdom.

Thus, it will be easier for companies to understand the culture, feelings, and interests of the community and in the end, gain their trust in the products or services offered. Rajesh said that was the reason that convinced him to join PasarPolis.

The Main Key to Popularize Insurance Products

Rajesh said that he would present acceptable insurance through a process of adapting technological models that have been successful in other countries, while still paying attention to the uniqueness of the Indonesian people.

According to Rajesh, through both processes, “presenting insurance as a protection product that can be accepted by all levels of society and can be trusted is my main focus.”

Rajesh continued, the main key to popularizing insurance products, which should be an important need for society, starts with quality products.

He said that good things start with good products, in this case products are more accessible, affordable in terms of costs and faster and more effective processes from product selection to claims.

“If customers are satisfied with the products offered from upstream to downstream, it will create a pleasant insurance experience,” added Rajesh.

“Hopefully, we hope that the insurance gap in Indonesia and Southeast Asia can be resolved, and thus will form complete trust in insurance products that are loved by all consumers,” he concluded.

Pandemic Drives Digital Insurance Business Growth

The Covid-19 pandemic has become a blessing in itself for digital insurance players (insurtech), one of which is PasarPolis. As of the end of 2021, PasarPolis has managed to achieve 7x growth (based on GWP/Gross Written Premium) compared to the end of 2020.

In the last two years, (2019 – 2021), PasarPolis is recorded to have issued more than 1 billion insurance policies.

Cleosent Randing, Founder & CEO of PasarPolis explained, overall, the best-selling insurance products in the market are Motor Vehicle Insurance, Health Insurance, and Gadget Insurance.

In addition, Cleo said, considering that people’s lifestyles are almost entirely digital, especially during the Covid-19 pandemic, the level of public awareness to protect various daily activities with insurance has also increased, especially health insurance along with increasing public awareness to protect their health.

Cleo said that the presence of Insurtech is expected to encourage increased use of insurance products through the provision of simple micro-insurance products that are integrated with e-commerce platforms, making it easier for consumers to access insurance products.