Regional insurtech Igloo and HD announce partnership to launch insurance products on HDmall
- Strategic partnership marks Igloo’s first partnership with Digital Health brand
- Offers HD’s over 6 million users digital convenience for medical, hospitalisation, cancer and personal accident insurance
- Taps on the growth potential of the general insurance market in Thailand which was estimated around USD8.4 billion in 2020, and expected to grow to USD10.6 billion in 2025
- Direct-to-consumer health insurance distribution opportunities buoyed by Millenial and Gen Z digital-first consumers who rely less on traditional employer-based health insurance, according to research by AVIA Health and Accenture
Regional insurtech company Igloo has teamed up with HD to provide health-related micro-insurance products via the HDmall healthcare marketplace platform in Thailand. Muang Thai Insurance (MTI), one of Thailand’s leading non-life insurance companies, will be underwriting the health insurance products such as cancer and mobile syndrome insurance, among others.
HD is a D2C direct-pay healthcare marketplace in emerging Southeast Asia. HD leverages ecommerce technology to connect direct-pay patients to hospitals and healthcare SMEs, with the mission to bring affordable healthcare to the ‘99%’. The healthtech startup has grown its users to 6 million and recently sold over 10,000 Moderna vaccines within 12 hours via the HDmall platform.
“Igloo’s tech capabilities and insurance expertise will join our portfolio of ecommerce technologies that empower direct-pay healthcare including credit card installment payments and buy-now-pay-later solutions that have already enabled people to pay for high-ticket healthcare procedures such as In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF), Cesarean Delivery (C-Section), and Lasik; dental-related products such as Clear Aligners and Invisalign; as well as medical aesthetics-related procedures” said Sheji Ho, CEO and Co-Founder of HD.
“We are happy to partner with HD, our first digital health partner on top of industries such as ecommerce, travel, telecommunications, logistics to delivery space. Together, we aim to create an insurance customer journey that meets the needs of today’s digital consumers, especially in Southeast Asia and in Thailand where technology has become more and more a part of our daily lives. HD’s healthcare marketplace and unique access to Millennial and Gen Z patients is the perfect fit for us to implement our technology of digital insurance that is relevant in today’s world. Igloo will continue to look at expanding its partnership in the digital health space across the SEA region,” said Raunak Mehta, Chief Commercial Officer, Igloo.
Across emerging Southeast Asia, 40% of healthcare expenditure is paid out of pocket (compared to 10% in the US). With the rise of the ‘Creator Economy’ and popularity of fractional trading apps like Robinhood – both of which were accelerated through the Covid pandemic – an increasing number of Millennial and Gen Z consumers are looking for more control over their healthcare consumption and expenditure. Unlike their parents’ generation, these digital-first consumers are less and less likely to be tied to traditional employer-based health insurance. This is based on recent findings by AVIA Health, a healthcare digital transformation consultancy, as well as Accenture’s Digital Health Consumer Survey.
“We see Igloo’s innovative micro health insurance technologies as a perfect complement to our focus on unlocking the $24 billion direct-pay healthcare opportunity in emerging Southeast Asia. With only 0.06% health insurance penetration (gross written premiums out of GDP), we need to take an out-of-the-box approach to empower patients in Thailand to finance healthcare,” added Sheji.
Igloo’s technologies will be integrated into HD and applied to both self-checkout and conversational commerce on the HDmall direct-pay healthcare marketplace platform to ensure the best possible user experience.
“We’re excited about partnering with both Igloo and HD, the latter marking our first collaboration with a healthtech startup. This strategic initiative will enable Muang Thai Insurance to distribute our micro-insurance products direct-to-consumer at scale and expand to a vast majority of customers digitally while leveraging Igloo’s machine learning and HD’s healthcare targeting and segmentation,” said Mrs. Nualphan Lamsam, President and Chief Executive Officer of Muang Thai Insurance PCL.
