Insurtech Axinan plays it cool with igloo app launch
Singapore-based insurtech Axinan has unleashed igloo – a digital insurance solution aimed at the lifestyle needs of millennials in Southeast Asia.
The Axinan team
As one of its first offerings, igloo will be introducing customisable phone screen protection (PSP) plans where consumers will be able to buy policies and make claims digitally and on the igloo mobile app. Specifically for the PSP plans, Axinan has partnered with digital insurer FWD Singapore as the official insurance partner.
Wei Zhu, founder and CEO, Axinan, says his company has a “focus on developing insurance products for millennials and hence has built products catering to their lifestyle centred around gadgets, travel, e-commerce – domains not covered by traditional insurers”.
With PSP, customers will be able to get their phone screens replaced upon physical damage to the screens. Axinan has partnered with several phone repair service companies to provide repair services island wide.
The firm cites a global study released by SquareTrade in November 2018, which says smartphone owners accidentally broke more than 50 million phone screens last year (that’s nearly two every second), and replacing those screens cost them $3.4 billion.
The study found that 66% of smartphone owners damaged their phones in the past year, with cracked screens leading the way as the most common type of damage (29%). Scratched screens (27%) and non-working batteries (22%) took second and third place respectively, with touchscreen issues and chipped corners/sides tied at 16% each.
Founded in 2016, Axinan uses big data, actuarial risk management and machine-learning processes to develop solutions. This involves partnering with e-commerce platforms to offer free return shipping policy by incorporating a real-time risk engine that determines the likelihood of returns based on user demographics and shopping behaviour online.
The launch of igloo marks Axinan’s first direct-to-consumer offering.
Axinan explains that it graduated from PayPal Singapore’s fintech incubator programme in 2017.
It has offered its solutions through partnerships with Indonesian marketplace Tokopedia, China’s Tmall and other e-commerce and marketplace platforms.
Axinan is a Series-A funded company with backing from Linear Ventures and Openspace Ventures among other investors.
