SG insurtech startup Igloo raises $ 19m Series B led by Cathay Innovation

Singapore-based insurance tech firm Igloo has raised $ 19 million in a Series B round led by Cathay Innovation.

Existing investors ACA Partners, Openspace, Singtel Innov8 and Partech Ventures joined the round, it said in a statement. Igloo’s total fundraising to date is over $ 36 million.

Igloo said it will use the funds for acquisitions and product development such as artificial intelligence-powered claims assessment tools, and products for the underinsured low to middle-income population in Southeast Asia.

“We are well-positioned to expand our operations in countries like Vietnam, The Philippines, and Malaysia, and provide a highly localized offering for each Southeast Asian market,” said Raunak Mehta, Igloo’s new chief executive and co-founder. He was previously Igloo’s chief commercial officer and joined the company in 2018. Before that, he was an executive at companies like Publicis Groupe, Zalora, and Flipkart.

Igloo was founded in 2016 by former Grab chief technology officer Wei Zhu. He is now one of Igloo’s board of directors.

Igloo currently has offices in Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore and said it works with 30 partners to provide 10 types of products like auto and e-wallet insurance to consumers. It claims to have underwritten over 75 million policies in Southeast Asia to date. As of 2021, the company had over 100 employees, its website said.

It last raised $ 8.2 million in a Series A + round in April 2020.

Other venture-funded Southeast Asian insurtech companies include Indonesia’s PasarPolis which raised $ 54 million in a Series B round in September 2020 and received $ 5 million from the International Finance Corporation in February 2021, and Malaysia’s PolicyStreet which raised $ 6 million in a Series A round last September .