GoBear, Asia’s leading financial services platform for insurance, banking and lending products – has raised US$17M from Walvis Participaties and Aegon N.V to accelerate its transformation into a full-fledged financial services platform.
“To truly improve financial health in Asia we must address the approximately 300 million people in our markets that remain underserved by existing banking and insurance services. GoBear’s transformation is a response to this by tackling important local barriers to financial literacy and inclusion,” said Adrian Chng, CEO of GoBear.
A significant portion of the business’ transformation was completed in 2019 and with this funding, GoBear will be well-positioned to continue its expansion of the financial services platform across three growth pillars: an online financial supermarket, digital insurance brokerage, and digital lending, all built on a strong foundation of alternative data.
“Our latest fundraise is validation that our investors continue to see our potential for growth and that we’re on track to build a robust financial services platform that Asia really needs. Built on our strong foundation of alternative data, we can better assess and price risk, co-create better products, and ultimately improve financial inclusion,” added Adrian.
Read More: Simple Announces Launch of Tax Refund Feature to Automate Savings for Customers
GoBear’s business model has proven to be resilient despite hurdles like COVID-19. Its financial services platform has been gross margin positive since the end of 2019 following growth across the insurance and lending verticals.
In the last three months, its digital insurance brokerage segment saw a 52% increase in average order value and launched GoBear exclusives to better meet consumer needs – “Go Travel”, a white-label travel insurance product with Chubb and “Travel Buddy” in partnership with Allianz. GoBear reinforced its digital lending business with the acquisition of AsiaKredit, a leading end-to-end digital consumer lender and has registered a 50% year-on-year revenue growth from loan products.
Read More: GlobalFintechSeries Interview with Ashish Singhal, CEO and Co-Founder at CRUXPay
