With operations in over 30 markets across four continents, bolttech is making significant waves in the insurance sector. Rob Schimek, Group CEO of bolttech, Singapore’s homegrown insurtech unicorn, shares his insights on the company’s strategies for driving growth, the current state of insurtech, and the opportunities in Southeast Asia. Read on to find out more and catch Rob in this video interview on our YouTube channel!

Can you share your perspective on the current state of insurtech in Singapore?

In recent years, Singapore has emerged as a dynamic insurtech hub, both globally and for the Asia Pacific region. A growing number of insurtech startups across the insurance value chain are tapping on the country’s robust financial infrastructure, strong technology community, and progressive regulatory environment to spur innovation and reshape the future of insurance. The Singapore government’s support of fintech initiatives, coupled with collaboration between key industry players, will further open up opportunities for all market participants. As Singapore’s homegrown insurtech unicorn, we are proud to be at the heart of the flourishing local insurtech scene. We will continue to build on our core competitive advantage, which is to act as an enabler for the industry — fostering collaboration and ‘co-opetition’ between insurtechs, insurers, and even non-insurance businesses through our ecosystem partnerships.

What specific opportunities do you see in the Southeast Asia region that make it an attractive market for bolttech’s insurtech solutions?

There remain massive untapped opportunities for insurers and insurtechs in Southeast Asia, one of the most culturally and geographically diverse regions in the world. A rapidly expanding, digitally savvy middle class and a growing adoption of digital financial services are key factors reshaping the insurance landscape across the region. At the same time, it is estimated that over 70% of Southeast Asia’s population are unbanked and underbanked.

We see a tremendous opportunity for insurtechs to encourage collaboration across the value chain to bridge the protection gap in Asia, a region where the insurance penetration is still low at an estimated 2% in 2022, according to Swiss Re. The low insurance penetration signals the need for innovation and new business models to improve the way insurance is bought and sold. There are a rising number of full-stack insurtechs emerging in the region that are creating digital insurance products to keep pace with evolving market demands, but they typically grapple with challenges involving high customer acquisition costs and regulatory requirements in different markets.

With bolttech’s successful Series B fundraise, what are your key strategies for driving growth in the Southeast Asia region?

The entire team at bolttech is thrilled with what we have achieved through our latest fundraise, just three years since we launched the bolttech brand in 2020. At US$246 million, it is the largest ever Series B round for an insurtech, with an up-round valuation of over US$1.6 billion. The round was led by Tokio Marine, with other key investors including MetLife, Khazanah Nasional, and impact investment firm LeapFrog. The proceeds of the round will be used to further expand our market footprint and invest in enhancing our digital capabilities for customers and partners.

Our growth strategy is focused on building the world’s leading ecosystem for embedded insurance, working with our business partners across different industries as a one-stop-shop for everything they might need to distribute insurance. Sectors such as telecommunications & electronics manufacturers, banking & financial institutions, retail & e-commerce represent huge opportunities for bolttech. For this year and 2024, we will continue to build out our propositions to deliver more value for partners within these industry verticals in the Southeast Asia region and beyond.

What is your long-term vision for the company, and what impact do you hope to make on the industry as a whole?

At the core of our vision and mission is our focus on building a leading ecosystem that facilitates access to insurance for distributors, providers, and customers alike, and we hope to play a role in addressing the growing global gap.

The “power of connection” is our mantra, and we strongly believe in working with industry incumbents, newcomers, and all our business partners inside and outside of the industry to create new opportunities to help customers around the world get better protected.

If there is one super hero you choose for bolttech to be, who would it be? And why?

Watch our video interview with Rob in our  rapid-fire Q&A segment at the halfway mark to find out!