By relying on blockchain technology, PolicyPal says it can provide cheaper insurance products for emerging markets

Policy Pal

Singapore-based insurtech startup PolicyPal raised 23,809 ETH (ether) last week via an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), giving the company about US$20 million in fresh funding.

The ICO was conducted in two phases: a private pre-sale and a public crowdsale. The company claims that tokens for the latter sold out within 38 seconds.

The newly-raised capital will be channelled towards developing the PolicyPal Network, a blockchain-based insurance product ecosystem.

Founded by Val Ji-hsuan Yap and Yi Ming Ng (who has since left) in 2016, PolicyPal is a mobile app that allows users to track all their insurance policies on one platform. It uses Aritifical Intelligence (AI) to digitise and store the policies.

PolicyPal already has several major insurance providers such as AIG, Aviva, AXA, Etiqa and NTUC Income onboard its platform. Last year, it raised an undisclosed seed funding from 500 Startups and a group of undisclosed angel investors.

Yap has hinted at expanding to regional markets such as Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan. With its blockchain play PolicyPal Network, the company will now be able to reach into emerging markets.

“PolicyPal Network is a platform built with a two-fold vision of addressing key issues that overlap the fields of both insurance and cryptocurrencies in the world today,” PolicyPal CEO and Founder Val Jihsuan Yap, tells e27.

Also Read: Taipei is using a blockchain alternative to transform into a smart city

“PolicyPal Network plans to achieve this by leveraging a host of existing firm partnerships in these emerging markets to serve the millions currently without access to protection due to complex buying processes and high insurance premiums,” she says.

PolicyPal Network will roll out its P2P mutual aid insurance in the future, which uses smart contracts to automate the underwriting of claims handling, allowing insurance premiums costs to be reduced.

The PolicyPal Network also aims to be an insurer for cryptocurrency investors. Recently, as cryptocurrency rapidly rose in prominence, hackers have conducted audacious online heists, causing investors to lose millions of dollars worth of cryptocurrencies. To that end, PolicyPal Network has built an insurance product called CryptoProtect, designed specifically to protect cryptoassets.

“We have observed a strong demand for cryptocurrency asset insurance due to the fear in consumers that their wallets and accounts on exchange could be hacked,” says Yap.

“Hence, we will launch CryptoProtect, Cybersecurity service in partnership with Insurers, to protect cryptocurrency assets. CryptoProtect will be provided to protect assets of blockchain startups in the initial launch. Future plans include insuring crypto-wallets on a personal level,” she says.

Token holders

The PolicyPal Network token holders can use their tokens for four things:

Utility:

  • Participate in surveys regarding new insurance products and new features for PolicyPal Network and receive bonus PolicyPal Network Tokens for their work.
  • Participate in marketing referral programme to form the community for the insurance pool and earn bonus PolicyPal Network Tokens for their work.
  • Members can purchase insurance policies on the PolicyPal Singapore platform using the PolicyPal Network Tokens.

Rewards for Insurance Spending:

  • Members get additional 2 per cent bonus rewards in PolicyPal Network Tokens when purchasing insurance policies on the PolicyPal Singapore platform.

Community:

  • Token holders play a key part in powering the PolicyPal Network blockchain through Proof-of-Stake (POS).

Interoperability:

  • The PolicyPal Network Token will be designed to be maximally interoperable with existing Ethereum Token Standard ERC20 infrastructure.

“Conducting an ICO is in line with our vision of decentralised insurance. We want to bring transparency and trust to the insurance industry, build a community and globalise the PolicyPal platform, ” says Yap.

—

Image Credit: PolicyPal

The post PolicyPal raises US$20M in token sale to develop blockchain-based insurance products appeared first on e27.