Xiaoyusan Insurance Secures RMB 100 Million Series B Funding from Matrix Partners China and Tasly Capital to Boost Team Expansion and InsurTech Innovation
Xu Han, Chairman of Xiaoyusan Insurance, and Guang Yao, CEO of Xiaoyusan Insurance
Just now, VCBeat learned that Xiaoyusan Insurance, an online insurance flash-sale platform, announced today that it has completed a RMB 100 million Series B financing round. This round was jointly invested by top domestic venture capital firms Matrix Partners China and Tasly Capital. Previously, Xiaoyusan Insurance had secured two rounds of funding from Sequoia Capital China and Xiantian Venture Capital.
So, what moves will Xiao Yu San make after securing this substantial round of financing? How will the funds be allocated?
Xu Han, Chairman of Xiaoyusan Insurance, told VCBeat that the proceeds from this financing round will be primarily allocated to team expansion, technological R&D, product upgrades, and enhancements to the user service system. The company will also intensify its exploration of InsurTech by dedicating greater R&D resources to artificial intelligence recognition, blockchain technology applications, and in-depth big data mining. Furthermore, centered on the overall insurance service ecosystem, our team will strive to further improve customer experience across key touchpoints, including policy purchase, policy administration, advisory services, claims processing, and satisfaction with digital interactions.
From Xu Han’s perspective, the successful completion of this Series B financing round is attributable to the Xiaoyusan Insurance team’s relentless efforts and pioneering innovation in the internet insurance sector. He expressed sincere gratitude to the investors for their recognition and trust in the team. Looking ahead, the company aims to strategically position itself within the personal health insurance segment and drive further transformative innovations in internet-based insurance products and services. It seeks to collaborate closely with its investors, Matrix Partners China and Tasly Capital, leveraging their respective strengths in internet services and the broader healthcare industry to facilitate experience sharing and resource synergy.
Meanwhile, Guang Yao, CEO of Xiaoyusan Insurance, believes that with the rise of the new middle class, more young users are increasingly demanding health protection and hope to purchase insurance services for themselves and their families through the Internet. The internet insurance industry has ushered in significant development opportunities over the past two years, and Xiaoyusan Insurance will continue to strengthen its efforts in the comprehensive health insurance sector.
It is understood that Xiaoyusan Insurance was established in January 2015. Leveraging internet-based big data, it designs exclusive insurance products for diverse demographic groups and has forged close partnerships with multiple large, professional insurance companies in China. Xiaoyusan Insurance is committed to thoroughly addressing prevalent industry pain points, such as customers’ difficulty in finding suitable insurance products, high premium costs, and opaque purchasing processes.
The core team of Xiaoyusan Insurance primarily comprises former executives from Tencent and insurance companies. Chairman Xu Han previously held senior executive positions at multiple financial institutions in Hong Kong and is a serial entrepreneur in the fields of finance and sports. The financial team he leads consists of professionals from top-tier insurance institutions both domestically and internationally, boasting extensive experience in actuarial science, underwriting, and claims assessment within the insurance sector, with a deep understanding of user demands for protection-oriented insurance products. CEO Guang Yao has served as the product lead for multiple products at Tencent, accumulating over ten years of experience in internet product research, development, and operations.
Xiaoyusan Insurance has consistently focused on the life and health insurance sector, leveraging the internet to provide users with a variety of insurance protection services. After more than two years of development, the company has completed the layout of its proprietary platform’s product matrix and channel scenarios. The insurance protection services offered by the Xiaoyusan Insurance platform are highly comprehensive, with insurance products covering all areas of life and health insurance. Xiaoyusan Insurance has established strategic partnerships with over 50 insurance companies, including Ping An Insurance, China Life Insurance, People’s Insurance Company of China (PICC), China Pacific Insurance, and Sunshine Insurance Group. Its user base has surpassed 3 million, it has facilitated tens of thousands of claims settlements, and its annual premium volume achieved a 20-fold year-on-year growth in 2016.
As a platform that leverages internet big data to customize insurance products, Xiaoyusan Insurance’s core strength lies in big data-driven insurance product innovation. The Xiaoyusan Insurance platform conducts research based on the characteristics of internet users, and its actuaries leverage the extensive user data accumulated by the platform to design insurance products tailored to customer needs. Meanwhile, Xiaoyusan Insurance places significant emphasis on backend claims services, with its flagship “Kacha Claims” service enabling policyholders to initiate a claim simply by uploading photos of their invoices.
Xiaoyusan Insurance Platform has made significant R&D investments and driven product innovation across the insurance service chain, establishing a fully closed-loop system with end-to-end online operations. Users can conveniently experience Xiaoyusan’s comprehensive, simple, and transparent insurance protection services.
Notably, the internet insurance industry has experienced significant growth in recent years. Data released by the China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) shows that in 2016, a total of 117 insurance institutions conducted internet insurance business, achieving written premium income of RMB 234.797 billion. Among them, 61 life insurance companies generated written premium income of RMB 194.495 billion. In 2016, there were 6.165 billion new internet insurance policies issued, accounting for 64.59% of all newly issued policies.
Some industry commentators have stated that, on the one hand, with the development of mobile internet and mobile payments, more users are looking to fulfill their financial service needs via the internet; on the other hand, driven by consumption upgrades resulting from the expansion of the new middle class, demand for insurance protection services is increasing. The entire internet insurance industry is expected to accelerate its development in 2017.