The Unmet Promise of Digital Distribution: Insurtech Leaders Face the Hard Truths

SINGAPORE, 5 JUNE 2025 — In a plenary session that was as introspective as it was insightful, industry leaders gathered at Insurtech Connect Asia 2025 to examine why digital distribution in insurance has not lived up to its early promise. Titled “The Unmet Promise of Digital Distribution: Obstacles and Future”, the discussion brought together seasoned voices from Southeast Asia’s digital ecosystems: Iwan Juwono (Grab), CS Soong (Klook Insurance), Stefan Wang (Lazada Indonesia JV), and moderator Yang Yang, Director of Insurance at Monee.

Unlike typical showcase panels, this session was defined by honesty, with each speaker admitting that even the region’s most innovative platforms had encountered painful lessons. Rather than declare victory, they explored the tension between scale and sustainability—and what it will take to finally close the protection gap.

Insurance as Empowerment, Not Just Revenue

Iwan Juwono, Head of Insurance at Grab, opened with a reminder of why digital distribution matters in the first place. “Insurance at Grab isn’t just a business opportunity—it’s about economic empowerment,” he said. “Most of our driver-partners and merchant-partners, around 70–80% of them, had no insurance when we started.”

Grab’s strategy, Iwan explained, began with purpose rather than profit: protecting gig workers and small merchants vulnerable to disruption, accidents, or health shocks. But even with scale, success hasn’t come easily. “Some products took 30 or 40 iterations to get right. And many still haven’t taken off. The truth is, we’re still trying to figure out what customers actually want,” he admitted.

Still, Grab remains committed. “We’ve found that insured partners are more productive. That’s a business case. But the mission—to protect those who need it most—remains the heart of it.” Iwan’s reflection was sobering: “We all believed digital would disrupt insurance overnight. But disruption without understanding leads nowhere. Execution and empathy must go hand in hand.”

When Experience Meets Expectation

CS Soong, CEO of Klook Insurance, brought a deeply personal lens to the discussion, beginning with a story about a disappointing shark tour in South Africa. “We spent all that money and time, only to miss the experience entirely. That feeling—that you’re left out in the cold—is what we never want our customers to go through,” he said.

To Klook, travel insurance is not about ticking a box but enhancing the travel experience itself. “It gives peace of mind. It lets you immerse fully, knowing you’re protected if something goes wrong,” said CS. Yet delivering that promise digitally has proven elusive.

“The challenge is personalization. We thought, with enough data, we could anticipate every need. But we’re far from that,” he admitted. Despite experimenting with new products, CS remains cautious. “We’ve seen how hard it is to align customer expectation with product delivery. My hope is to create better alignment—not just by predicting, but by truly listening.”

He closed with a modest but firm aspiration: “We’re working on a low-claim discount model to reward good actors. Because I believe good customers shouldn’t have to subsidize bad ones.”

Building Value Before Scaling Volume

For Stefan Wang, Director at Lazada Indonesia JV, insurance remains an evolving part of the company’s broader e-commerce ecosystem. “We’re still in the early phase, focused on building value rather than chasing volume,” he explained.

One of his key frustrations has been the overemphasis on conversion metrics at the expense of meaningful engagement. “We spend all our time optimizing the customer journey—but in doing so, we strip away the context. We remove the very moments where customers might actually understand why they need insurance,” said Stefan.

He proposed a rethink: “If we want customers to care, we must give them more than efficiency—we need to offer narrative, timing, and purpose.” His ambition? To create a “Spotify for insurance”—a flexible, user-centric experience that adapts to customer behavior in real time. “Insurance should switch on when you ride, when you travel, when you shop. You shouldn’t have to think about it—but you should feel it’s there.”

Stefan ended with an invitation: “The region is fragmented, yes. But we all hold pieces of customer intent. If we pool those signals and collaborate, we can finally make embedded protection meaningful.”

From Blueprint to Reality: Lessons in Patience and Product-Market Fit

When asked about their most promising upcoming products, the speakers provided glimpses into what lies ahead. Stefan teased the digital launch of a compulsory insurance product that is still manually processed today: “It’s a simple thing, but the impact could be massive. Not everything has to be disruptive to be transformative.”

CS reiterated the importance of personalization at scale, while Iwan revealed Grab’s deep investment in building a parametric insurance product for small businesses. “We’ve been working on it for two years. It’s still not live. But we think it can finally make micro-protection viable—without the burden of traditional claims processes.”

All three emphasized one shared theme: that execution, not ambition, will decide the fate of digital insurance in the region.

A Quiet Call for Collaboration

As moderator, Yang Yang, Director of Insurance at Monee (formerly SeaMoney under Sea Group), had perhaps the most difficult role: summing up a session built on ambiguity, disappointment, and guarded hope. Yet it was her quiet observations that brought clarity.

“During the pandemic, everyone hoped digital distribution would be the big unlock. We all raced to replicate WeSure-style models from China. But in reality? Many of us couldn’t find insurers willing to support the economics needed to reach price-sensitive users,” she said candidly.

Yang Yang also highlighted how fragmented the region remains: “We may be building great products, but our marketing is still too slow. We aren’t pushing enough messages, fast enough, across platforms. The energy is missing.”

Still, her conclusion was hopeful—not flashy. “Maybe the answer isn’t a silver bullet. Maybe it’s about showing up every day with the discipline to test, fail, listen, and refine. I think the most exciting breakthroughs in the next year won’t come from innovation alone—but from execution at scale.”