Southeast Asian omnichannel InsurTech Qoala has announced its strategic acquisition of Thai InsurTech startup FairDee. Through this acquisition, Qoala will be able to expand its reach in Southeast Asia. From its previous reach of Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam, it will now be able to further expand into Thailand, the largest consumer insurance market in Southeast Asia. Qoala will continue to focus on B2B partnerships, marketplace, and a tech-enabled brokerage model.
“FairDee and Qoala share the same vision in how insurance can be reimagined. Hence, we are doubling down on developing technology to deliver an excellent insurance experience to the community digitally in Thailand on the back of our strong SEA presence. With this acquisition, we are taking a big leap in the group’s regional ambition to be the number one insurtech in SEA. Given the shared vision and expertise that FairDee’s team has been able to cultivate since its inception, we are confident to continue to serve millions of underinsured in the region,” said Harshet Lunani, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Qoala, in a statement shared with TechNode Global.
Since its founding in 2019, FairDee has become an emerging InsurTech leader in Thailand. Over the past 18 months, it has achieved 7x growth in Gross Written Premiums (GWP) despite the challenges brought upon by the coronavirus pandemic under the leadership of the startup’s Co-Founders, Yujun Chean, Prateek Jogani, and Thanasak Hoontrakul.
FairDee Co-Founder and CEO Yujun Chean said, “We started FairDee to bring the best insurance experience to customers across the region. Being part of Qoala will greatly accelerate that vision, and together, we are more than excited to deliver further innovation in Thailand and beyond. Drawing upon Qoala’s regional expertise and support, we are committed to elevating our service quality to our partners and customers in Thailand.”
Qoala was founded in 2018 by Harshet Lunani and Tommy Martin. The InsurTech startup took part in the first cohort of Sequoia India’s Surge, a rapid scale-up accelerator, in 2019. Qoala has partnered up with leading insurance companies such as Allianz, Zurich, Chubb, Great Eastern, and Tokio Marine. It has also partnered up with leading SEA digital platforms such as OYO, GrabKios, Traveloka, OVO, Dana, and Momo. Despite the pandemic, Qoala was able to expand in Malaysia and Vietnam in 2020. Lunani emphasized the need for proper access to insurance, especially during a pandemic.
Qoala concluded its Series A round of fundraising last April 2020 raising $13.5 million–the largest amount raised by an InsurTech startup from Indonesia. The round was led by Centauri Fund, a JV between funds from South Korea’s Kookmin Bank and Telkom Indonesia. The round was also participated in by Sequoia India, Flourish Ventures, Kookmin Bank Investments, Mirae Asset Venture Investment, and Mirae Asset Sekuritas.
Through this acquisition, Qoala plans to speed up technology scalability and innovation across all its businesses by using its learning from Indonesia and Thailand to strengthen its core competencies and digital offerings across all its markets. With the help of its existing investors, Qoala will have the ability to become Southeast Asia’s largest regional-scale InsurTech startup in 2021.
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