Alibaba-backed eWTP fund entered Indonesia by investing in the Series B round of insurtech company Fuse

Fuse, Indonesia’s premier insurtech firm, has raised money from a number of investors, including eWTP Technology and Investment Fund, CE Innovation Capital, and Saratoga, to expand its Series B fundraising round.

This round comes just over a month after East Ventures (growth fund), SMDV, Golden Gate Ventures, Heyokha Brothers, and Emtek announced the closing of the Series B round led by GGV Capital, with participation from returning investors such as East Ventures (growth fund), SMDV, Golden Gate Ventures, Heyokha Brothers, and Emtek. Fuse raised US$30 million in that round, according to a June Deal Street Asia article.

The additional cash will be used to expand the firm further throughout Southeast Asia.

“As a leading insurtech player in Indonesia, Fuse has a unique value proposition that empowers traditional sales channels by connecting numerous and scattered insurers with a large agent network, providing agents/brokers with a comprehensive lineup of insurance products. In addition, Fuse has demonstrated an ability to leverage new and innovative insurance products from other countries to create a distinct competitive advantage,” said Jiang Dawei, Partner, and CFO of eWTP.

Andy Yeung and Ivan Sunandar founded Fuse in 2017 to address Indonesia’s insurance industry’s last-mile trust gap (97 percent of Indonesians are underinsured for lack of trust in the current system). The company’s business strategy is based on agents.

Fuse promises to offer immediate closure and rapid claims processing because of its platform’s over 60,000 agent partners. In 2020, it will have a total gross written premium (GWP) of more than $50 million (IDR 720 billion).

On the platform, it has over 30 insurance company relationships and 300 insurance products. It includes anything from employee benefits to e-commerce platform-integrated digital insurance.

It aided Tokopedia with introducing its first transactional top-up micro-insurance product in 2018.

Fuse raised “a couple of million dollars” in a Series A round from investors, including EV Growth, in October 2019.

“Fuse seeks to address the trust concerns of 97 percent of Indonesians who are still uninsured. We believe Fuse is on the right track to scale up the business in the long run. Given the relatively low penetration of insurance products in the country, promising population growth prospect, and the increasing demand from customers post the pandemic, we have full confidence in Fuse’s next phase of growth,” said Xiaolin Zheng, Partner of CEIC.

eWTP, a Chinese fund funded by Alibaba, seeks to capitalize on developing market startup possibilities. The fund, which includes assets in India, Vietnam, and Thailand, was established in 2018 and has a fund size of US $600 million. eWTP’s initial venture into Indonesia is Fuse.