Quick take:
- YAS MicroInsurance has raised $4.5 million in a pre-Series A round co-led by Noria Capital, ZEMU VC, and JKL Capital.
- The Hong Kong-based insurtech startup also received backing from 500 Global.
- The company is expanding its insurance product offerings to include the web3 economy.
YAS MicroInsurance has raised $4.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round co-led by Noria Capital, ZEMU VC, and JKL Capital. The fundraising also received backing from San Francisco, CA-based venture capital firm, 500 Global.
YAS is a Hong Kong-based Insurtech company specialising in affordable and flexible insurance products designed for the next generation of customers.
Insurtech refers to the use of emerging technology solutions to reduce the cost of acquiring insurance solutions while making the process easier and more convenient from a customer’s perspective.
The company uses a decentralised blockchain platform to make the whole process from application to claims processing faster.
The company is led by the three co-founders Kelvin Cheung, William Lee and Andy Ann, who is also the CEO. All three also hold positions in NOIZ gaming, campaign management and monetisation platform for pre-released and published games, according to their LinkedIn profiles.
The three founders hold vast experiences varying from digital marketing to blockchain integration.
According to the company’s fundraising announcement, YAS plans to offer cross-dimensional insurance opportunities including insuring the web3 economy.
Web3 is generally described as a next-generation version of the internet that leverages blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, VR/AR, and decentralised apps to democratise the web. It is the underlying technology powering the next generation of gaming in the metaverse, as well as, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and DeFi.
Commenting on his company’s achievements since launching in 2019, Andy Ann said: “YAS has accomplished remarkable results since 2019. Over the past three years, we are grateful to all of our investment partners for supporting YAS. In particular, we are honoured to receive the capital injection from our strategic investor, Noria Capital, in this round of funding, whose Vision, Mission and Values (VMV) matches with YAS.”
Ann also revealed that the company continues to receive backing from 500Startups, JKL Capital and Beyond Venture.
YAS is leveraging web3 technologies to create insurance products that focus on real customer needs, rather than offering products built on speculation.
The company sees a huge opportunity in the digital assets space with only $6 billion out of $1 trillion web3 assets insured today. YAS lauded its pre-Series A round as a recognition of its vision to disrupt the insurance industry with autonomous insurance and microinsurance on the blockchain.
The company sees the Middle East, especially the United Arab Emirates, which has become the region’s hub for blockchain adoption, as “an excellent opportunity.”
Noria Capital, a Middle East-based venture capital firm, which co-led the round will spearhead YAS’ campaign in the region and help YAS obtain a digital asset insurance license in the Middle East.
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