During the height of the COVID-19 crisis, PolicyStreet, a Malaysian insurtech company opened its fundraising exercise to the angel network via equity crowfunding platform PitchIN.
The startup closed its campaign earlier than scheduled after achieving more than 500% of the minimum requirement, making it one of the largest funds to be raised from an ECF platform in Malaysia. The exercise was participated by both international and local investors including a government co-investment fund that saw the potential of its insurance business; having grown more than 40 times last year.
PolicyStreet has successfully raised US$ 1.8 million (MYR 7.8 million) in the Series A investment, which is led by KK Fund, an existing investor of PolicyStreet. The investment round is also see participating from Spiral Ventures, another Singapore-based venture capital fund.
It aims to use the funds raised from this round to sharpen its technological capabilities, increase sales and marketing activities, and expand into new markets. It is looking forward to filling protection gaps and address customer needs in the South East Asian emerging markets.
According to Lee Yen Ming, co-founder and CEO of PolicyStreet,
“We are grateful and thankful to have the support of KK Fund, Spiral Ventures and 274 angel investors who believed in our business and saw our potential. We have undeniably attracted very notable and sophisticated investors from Board Members of listed companies, Executive Directors, C-suites, Vice Presidents and many others whom we will be looking up to for guidance and advice leveraging on their respective experiences.”
Koichi Saito, General Partner of KK Fund also added,
“I am very proud of the PolicyStreet team for being able to fundraise during this unprecedented crisis. Covid-19 has increased the awareness and need to have an adequate insurance protection which has accelerated the business demand for PolicyStreet. I am looking forward to seeing higher growth in their business as they expand in the region.”
Sam Shafie, CEO of PitchIN echoes the same sentiments,
“We’d like to congratulate PolicyStreet on their fundraising. Despite the challenges of fundraising during a global pandemic and the restrictions accorded by the local Movement Control Order, PolicyStreet has now become the most successful company to have fund-raise via Equity Crowdfunding in Malaysia. We’ve put this down due to their commitment to making themselves available for investors by utilising virtual platforms to reach out to the investors and a clear vision of where they’d like to take PolicyStreet to.”
In 2019, PolicyStreet was the only local insurance technology company that obtained the Financial Adviser and Islamic Financial Adviser approval from the Central Bank of Malaysia enabling it to work with over 35 insurers and offer more than 1,000 insurance products. The company serves emerging affluent, large conglomerates and SMEs.
They are also listed in Fintech News Malaysia’s top 20 fintech startups in Malaysia.
