In 2015 in Asia investment in Fintech (which also includes the insurance industry) has been even quadrupled, as Reuters reported.
Among the emerging insuretech companies in the area, target of a colossal investment, there is Zhong An, born in 2013 as the first insurance, online – only, that is characterized by the sale of policies exclusively via web.
A more than apt strategy if we look at some of the results achieved in about three years: last year received investments for more than $ 900 million with a valuation over 8 billion, also based on the fact that the company in 2014 already counted on revenue of 4.1 million dollars, offered more than 200 insurance products, and had more than 3.6 billion of policies held by 369 million customers.
Its investors include Morgan Stanley and China Internaional Capital, but above all Alibaba (through its subsidiary Ant Financial Services Group which is the main shareholder with 16% stake) and even Tencent Holdings, which is the main Chinese giant of the Internet rival to Alibaba. The deal Zhong An is so big and strong, that each rivalry is overcome and both are investors of the company.
That by 2016 will go public, as anticipated by the Wall Street Journal in this article.
How this company has this extraordinary grip on the market and grows up so fast, is certainly due to the geographical context where it was born, but its real strength is the technology.
Zhong An was founded on the assumption that the entire chain of the insurance value and the user experience can be digitized. Leveraging on cloud and bid data analytics has succeeded in developing an exceptional amount of insurance products, both for companies and for individuals, ensuring traditional goods but also new risks related to the Internet; managing via the web the whole process from purchase to claim.
The following is an interview with the CEO of the company, Wayne Xu, granted to Bloomberg, in which is precisely explained where the company’s success comes.
