Chinese online insurance platform InsurTech Waterdrop managed to raise more than $145 million in its latest funding round. The series C round was led by private equity firm Boyu Capital with the support of various other investment firms.
The Tencent-backed company plans to use the new capital to establish a professional team that will focus on healthcare insurance and the integration of new technologies such as artificial intelligence into its various products.
Taking part in the company's funding round were early investors such as Gaorong Capital and Tencent. Also part of the series C round was CICC Capital, which intends to fully back the insurance firm. Waterdrop was first established in2016 by former Meituan Dianping executive Shen Peng.
The company started out as a health care platform for Chinese patients and their families. The firm eventually expanded its services to include online insurance sales.
Earlier in the year, Waterdrop managed to raise more than $72.25 million in its series B funding round that was led by Tencent. Both Tencent and Boyu Capital are major investors in the company. Since its foray into online insurance sales,
Waterdrop has been able to broker thousands of insurance policies with premiums worth hundreds of millions of dollars. The company boasts that over 90 percent of its customers had bought their first online insurance through its platform.
Major Chinese insurance firms sell their products on Waterdrop's platform. These include companies such as Ping An Insurance, China Taiping, and the People's Insurance Company of China. Apart from selling insurance, the platform also provides other services such as crowdfunding resource for medical treatments. The platform makes no charges or commission fees for these types of services.
Waterdrop sees itself as a platform that would combine traditional insurance products with innovative financial solutions for medical patients and medical institutions. Boyu Capital's executive director, Huang Kai, mentioned in an interview that Waterdrop is in a great position to help Chinese families and to close the gap in the country's health and welfare programs.
China currently ranks third in the world's largest insurance markets. Analysts predict that the insurance premiums in the country could quadruple to around $2.36 trillion by 2032. China is expected to surpass the United States as the biggest insurance market in the world during that time.
Apart from Waterdrop, other online insurance platforms have been trying to get market shares in the budding industry. These platforms include those established by major financial and tech firms such as Ant Financial and Waterdrop's own backer Tencent.
