Life insurer Singlife has grown from start-up to insurtech incumbent through its strong technological capabilities
A Google search on the top life insurance companies in Singapore sees Singapore Life, or Singlife, featuring prominently on the list. With the company being named alongside industry veterans, one would think that it too has been in the insurance business for generations.
Ironically, Singlife only took form seven years ago in 2014, when its founder Walter de Oude acted on a long-time belief that the world was in need of a better life insurance company. The 48-year-old considered a good provider as one that was able to leverage technology to create an efficient process that enabled customers to get their life insurance policies as quickly as possible.
While insurtech has become more commonplace in recent years, de Oude says the industry was relatively slow to adopt technology close to a decade ago. “Payment services platforms worked quickly to adopt good technology, banks were following closely at a fast pace, but the insurance companies were really lagging behind,” he tells The Edge Singapore in a recent interview.
A desire to bridge this gap pushed de Oude to set up Singlife. He decided on this name after a brief search on the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (Acra) page showed that it was available.
Even though there already were several strong life insurers in the market at that time, de Oude was confident of capturing a share of the pie by creating a more seamless digital experience for consumers. De Oude’s game plan was simple: to offer life insurance just like how the banks were offering banking services online.
“We knew we would have an opportunity to find our place next to the [existing players if] we were able to capture a share of what customers were looking for. And that’s what we did,” says de Oude. What ensued was a three-year journey towards obtaining a licence from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to operate as a life insurer.
Insurance start-up to insurtech
Having held positions as the CEO of HSBC Insurance (Singapore), a board member of HSBC Asset Management Singapore, and as a former actuary for Swiss Re, de Oude was familiar with the workings of the insurance industry and what the regulator was looking for. Key traits included being a company that could be depended on by consumers, being sustainable enough to withstand the test of time and having strong products and services.
When asked why he could not make a difference to the life insurance industry through his previous appointments, de Oude stresses that it was because there is a lot of legacy to deal with in large organisations. He adds that things also move at a much slower pace, something he was not willing to contend with.
One of de Oude’s initial hurdles was filling in the MAS’ licence application form which required input on areas like the company’s track record and capital. “It was written in a way that describes a large foreign company coming to establish a subsidiary, not an insurance start- up,” he explains.
De Oude worked towards raising around US$50 million ($67.8 million) for Singlife’s series A funding round, so it had the means to invest in good technology and security. This proved an arduous process, since investors tend to put their money in businesses that can showcase their earnings, he recalls.
“We couldn’t show any revenue because we didn’t have any licence. We didn’t have a licence because we didn’t have the capital. It was a vicious circle,” says de Oude, adding that it took three years of “pain” to raise the capital needed and get the right support. “Most large companies loved what we were doing, but when it came down to parting with money, the idea of a large corporation investing in a start-up and giving equity to people like me was just unpalatable,” he says.
Singlife eventually reached its capital-raising goal through a combination of funds from angel investors, investments from a large private equity firm and de Oude’s personal funds. Touching on the time he received his first round of funding, de Oude remembers having mixed emotions. On the one hand, he felt absolute relief at being able to continue the work he wanted to do through Singlife, while on the other hand, he felt a sense of responsibility for he now had to deliver on whatever he had told his investors.
Creating things that work
De Oude channelled his sense of responsibility towards what he calls “building cool stuff”. “I’m very motivated to create things that work and people like,” he says. One of the key areas he worked on was building Singlife’s digital capabilities. For instance, he enabled digital authentication so that customers could receive their insurance policies instantly upon purchase, unlike the traditional industry practice of having to wait for three weeks to get an approval. For this, de Oude leverages “start-of-the art, integrated technology” that can identify a person and be confident that he or she is who they claim to be. Aside from this, de Oude looked into developing products and services that were of high standards. Thinking that consumers would prefer to keep their insurance policies separate from their investments and savings, Singlife started off by providing simple protection plans.
The company has since increased its product offerings in a bid to get closer to its customers’ day-to-day living. After extensive research, de Oude realised that Singlife could help customers maximise their protection just by getting closer to their cash and overall wealth. This realisation was a catalyst for the launch of the Singlife Account — an insurance savings plan that uses an issuance of store money to give customers liquidity through the Singlife Visa Debit Card. The upside of the account was: it gives returns of up to 2.0% per annum.
The move brought in over $1 billion in assets under management and close to 100,000 new customers in seven months, recalls de Oude. The success of the Singlife Account prompted de Oude to launch Grow, an investment-linked policy that allows customers to invest in portfolios managed by Aberdeen. Returns are based on a customers’ portfolio performance and the value of the units and the income accruing to that.
Apart from the investment features that Singlife offers, what sets it apart from other life insurers is its acquisitions. Back in 2018, the then-fledgling start-up acquired Zurich Life Singapore’s portfolio when the latter was exiting its life insurance business here. Through this, Singlife became responsible for policies amounting to around $6 billion.
Another big deal was to follow. In 2020, the company merged with Aviva Singapore to form Aviva Singlife. With this, Aviva’s customer base of 1.5 million will have access to Singlife’s savings, investing and protection services. Singlife will also have access to Aviva’s assets amounting to $11.8 billion. De Oude believes he managed to win this deal — despite not being among the initial bidders who were short-listed — because of a well-thought-out plan.
While Singlife has created a strong presence for itself in Singapore, de Oude is showing no signs of slowing down. Among his list of plans is to expand the company’s suite of solutions to the rest of Asean. In fact, the life insurer already has a presence in the Philippines since 2019, having struck up a deal with mobile wallet services provider GCash to offer small ticket- sized protection that works in parallel with payments.
When asked what his considerations are as he explores opportunities in other Asean countries, de Oude says that access to customers is among his top priorities. “We are looking for ecosystems that we can participate in and get the greatest level of exposure and engagement with the widest possible audience,” he notes.
Looking back at the journey that Singlife has taken, de Oude says that there were several moments when he felt like giving up — like when he was running out of money and had to dip into his savings; when he was turned down when asking for funding and when he faced technological challenges. “There are many points when you think this is so hard and ask yourself, ‘Why am I doing this?’. But then you do it because it makes you feel so alive and fulfilled in building cool stuff,” he reflects.
What helped him press on was having a strong team which has grown to over 1,000 following its acquisition of Aviva Singapore. De Oude is heartened that the hard work put in by himself and his team has led to him winning the EY Entrepreneur of the Year award under the Digital Insurance Solutions category. “Building a start-up is the hardest thing imaginable. It was much more difficult than I ever thought to bring it to life and create the success that Singlife has become. This award is validation that other people also think that what we have built is pretty cool,” says de Oude.
Cover image of Walter de Oude: Albert Chua/The Edge Singapore
