Plug and Play, a global startup accelerator and corporate innovation platform headquartered in Silicon Valley, and NTUC Income (Income), a leading composite insurer in Singapore, announced today that the latter will be a corporate partner of Plug and Play APAC’s Insurtech program.
The strategic partnership, which spans across Southeast Asia, will see Income working with regional insurers, start-ups and digital ecosystem partners within Plug and Play’s network to scale its innovative products and services to serve consumers across the ASEAN region.
The partnership will be the first regional collaboration between Plug and Play and Income that not only focuses on cross-vertical business collaborations but also enhances financial access and value-adds to the existing customer journeys of non-financial ecosystem partners.
Over the last few years, Income has created and launched innovative insurance products such as lifestyle-based microinsurance propositions, Droplet and SNACK to fit the needs of increasingly digitally-savvy customers in Singapore.
These innovations and know-how are folded into and powered by HIVE by Income’s Insurance-as-a-Service (IaaS) API platform where regional partners will be able to connect to and take advantage of pre-built insurtech integrations with minimal additional cost and development time. This value-adds to partners’ existing solutions and strengthens their value propositions, allowing them to capture new customer segments and drive greater accessibility to insurance.
“One of the key enablers for redefining the playing field is trust. As Income continues to expand in the region, it is important for us to partner reputable like-minded brands to build on valuable customer relationships to expand into adjacencies. We believe digital platforms have the ability to orchestrate end-to-end visibility through a wide array of data, to continue to create value with customers’ need at the heart of the proposition. This partnership with Plug and Play is very timely as it brings speed to our recent foray overseas via HIVE’s Insurance-as-a-Service platform.” said Edlyn Khoo, Deputy Vice President, Digital Transformation Office, Income.
As part of the strategic partnership, Income and Plug and Play will jointly launch a series of regional innovation showcases to provide a springboard for exchange of ideas and sharing of best practices. The first of such events, known as HIVE Innovation Day, will take place via a hybrid format in Vietnam on 25 March. It will discuss the sharp advantage that data can bring to digital ecosystems to drive innovative financial offerings via various industry case studies.
“Since the launch of our Insurtech accelerator in Singapore in 2018, we have always been keen on a partnership with Income, given that it’s a reputable household name in Singapore and amongst the largest composite insurer in the country. More significantly, this partnership with Income denotes our first regional foray into launching our corporate partners in new markets, where we will look to ideate, pivot, localize and scale products and ventures , through in-market partnerships within our network of over 500 corporations across the world. We are eager to see how this exciting partnership with Income will unfold given the diverse and extensive opportunities that are set to come with our multi-industry partner ecosystem in Asia Pacific,” added Jupe Tan, Managing Partner at Plug and Play APAC.
About NTUC Income NTUC Income is Singapore’s leading composite insurer, offering life, health and general insurance that serve the protection, savings and investment needs of different life stages and for as of society. Income’s innovative, data-driven and omni-channel approach puts us at the forefront of customer-centric solutions that meet rapidly evolving needs and empower better financial well-being. Income was established in 1970 and remains the only insurance co-operative in Singapore. We remain committed to creating a positive social impact through our products, services and people. Our financial strength and diversified investment portfolio is reflected by our strong credit ratings which underpin the delivery of our commitment to customers. For more information, please visit www.income.com.sg
About HIVE by Income
HIVE by Income is a Singapore-based Insurance-as-a-Service (IaaS) platform, enabling any insurer and digital platform owner across the region to launch, localise and scale innovative embedded insurance propositions. Our pre-built insurtech integrations enhance our partners’ speed to market, and their ability to capture new customer segments and engagement with minimal additional cost and a competitive advantage that is data-driven. For more information, please visit: hive.income.com.sg.
About Plug and Play
Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, we have built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and a global VC to facilitate technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since its inception in 2006, our programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 25 locations globally giving startups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 40,000 startups and 500 official corporate partners, we have created the ultimate startup ecosystem in many industries. We provide active investments with 200 leading Silicon Valley VCs, and host more than 700 networking events per year. Companies in our community have raised over $7 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, Lending Club and PayPal.
Our Singapore office was launched in 2010 to invest in high tech startups in the region. Since then we have invested in more than 50 startups and have collaborated with various agencies of the Singapore and Indonesian governments, as well as partnered with multinational and regional corporations to run industry-specific accelerator programs. For more information, please visit www.plugandplayapac.com
