What the business is
PasarPolis is one of Indonesia's first full-stack insurtechs, selling embedded and micro-insurance to clients like Tokopedia, Gojek and Traveloka.
Starting capital
$59M+ raised as of July 2023, including from Indonesian unicorns Gojek, Tokopedia and Traveloka.
How it started
Launched in 2015, PasarPolis became one of Indonesia's first full-stack insurtechs; through a strategic partnership with Tap Insure — registered and supervised by Indonesia's Financial Authority (OJK) — it underwrites and distributes its own insurance products.
What happened
Van Zyl — seven years as director and CEO of Allianz Indonesia plus 15 years in senior AIG roles — had worked with PasarPolis for over five years, since Allianz began insuring its business partners. He joins as president overseeing full-stack strategy, aiming to make PasarPolis Indonesia's leading digital insurer against insurtech peers like Cermati, Lifepal and Cekaja.
What has to be true
Moving from distributing others' policies to underwriting its own is a risk decision; hiring Allianz Indonesia's ex-CEO imports the actuarial and regulatory credibility it requires.
Full-stack economics let PasarPolis own margin and product design instead of reselling incumbents' policies.
A specialist in selling first-ever policies to uninsured customers needs trust signals — a big-insurer résumé is one.
What can be applied
When a distribution platform graduates to carrying its own risk, it hires the risk discipline it lacks — from the incumbents it set out to disrupt.
Aftermath
As of 2023-07-11 Van Zyl is overseeing PasarPolis' strategy as a full-stack insurer across Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, with the stated goal of becoming the leading digital insurer in Indonesia.
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