KSK Insurance (Thailand) PCL has climbed up market ranking within the non-life health insurance market space, gaining 2.3% market share of gross written premiums in only a couple years spearheaded by its digital transformation and its health growth strategy. Since 2018, the Company, founded by KSK Group, has now become a subsidiary of Sunday Ins Holdings, a financial and technology investment holding company based in Singapore. Sunday Ins Holdings also holds Sunday, a leading insurtech company based in Thailand, and has continuously attracted investments from global and local institutions including SCB 10X (a holding company of Siam Commercial Bank) and LINE Ventures (part of Line Corporation which operates Thailand's most popular LINE messaging application, and recently merged with Yahoo Japan to become Z Venture Capital).
According to TGIA, Thailand General Insurance Association, KSK Insurance (Thailand) grew its gross written premium by 90% in 2020, fastest in the non-life insurance market, building its growth on increasing demand for health insurance and virtual insurance and healthcare services in Thailand. Since 2018, the company has a fresh direction to scale its business supporting important ecosystems for example, employee health benefits & retail health coverages and motor coverages for individuals & corporates.
Service differentiation has been key for the company in driving such rapid growth, including partnership with insurtechs to integrate virtual and cashless primary care services including symptom checker, teleconsultation, medication delivery and offering virtual insurance coverage and claims management. In support of such successful scale in partnering with leading insurtechs, the company is one of the very few insurers regionally to have found significant growth from transformation of its core underwriting and claims operations adopting artificial intelligence / machine learning and microservices platforms. Digital adoption and integration with insurtechs and ecosystem partners are key to its investment strategy that will lay the groundwork for sustainable and continuous growth.
The company has a 5-year roadmap to be a digital insurer differentiated via insurtech solutions especially within the digital healthcare service and transportation sector, targeting more than 15% market share in the non-life health insurance market. Focus will be on being a truly adaptable insurer that meets consumer demands for long-term primary care and increasing urban diseases under the new normal.
Building on its growing clients base with an active track record of serving local and global-branded SMEs and large enterprises in multiple industries nationwide, the company believes that consumers and corporates will look beyond competitive premiums quoted but for comprehensive care services to be accessible seamlessly and cashless through their smartphones for all types of coverages.
"To implement effective and impactful digital strategy means to have this as a key management agenda for every company. At KSK, we have been working intensively to make this happen starting from our management team being change agents ourselves. We have seen how the pandemic altered risk landscapes and accelerated consumer behaviours. KSK wants to lead the insurance industry to be more adaptable in meeting these new demands through delicate human touch coupled with data and technology. We foresee that business and service models of insurers globally and locally will change as we expect new competitors in the industry and as insurers encroach deeper into selected verticals for example, healthcare and transportation. This is a big investment for any insurer including us. At KSK, we believe we are in a unique position to build rapid growth in this digital era with minimal cannibalisation. We are humbled by and appreciate our global and local shareholders who continue to believe in our growth and path to profitability. Although Thailand is an ageing population, we believe it is ripe for more advanced digital adoption and we are prepared to lead the insurance industry in its digital transformation." Jess Tham, Executive Director and Head of Claims of KSK Insurance (Thailand) PCL.
Prior to 2018, KSK Group from Malaysia was the sole foreign shareholder in the company with the majority of the company's revenue derived from motor insurance aligned with many other non-life insurance players. Since then, the company continues to enlarge its foreign capitalization table at its regional holding company, Sunday Holdings. Sunday Holdings has been attracting heavy-weight shareholders from venture-capital arm of Singapore's Temasek Holdings, Vertex Ventures SEA and India, Quona Capital, LINE Ventures, SCB 10X and OSK-SBI Private Equity Ventures, in support of transforming itself into a digital insurer. The company now also belongs to a wider group of affiliated companies regionally comprising data and technology, insurtech and brokerage, and healthcare service providers.
"We are always looking for companies who are creating remarkable impact in the fintech industry. KSK Insurance (Thailand), which partners with Sunday, a leading InsurTech in Southeast Asia, has shown us that track record scaling significantly. As an investor of Sunday Ins Holdings, we believe in Sunday's and KSK Insurance (Thailand)'s direction on digital innovation with the potential to mark a new milestone for the way to serve insurance products and services to the market going forward starting with healthcare. We look forward to working closely with the team at Sunday and KSK Insurance (Thailand) to push the entire industry into the digital direction." Mukaya Panich, Chief Venture and Investment Officer at SCB 10X.