CXA Group announces fresh funding from investors
Insurance technology startup CXA Group today announced that it has secured fresh funding from Thailand-based HR software provider Humanica and HSBC Life, the insurance arm of HSBC. This is CXA's fourth successful round of fundraising since it was founded in 2013. It had previously raised a total of US$58 million, almost half of which came from a single bridge funding round last year.
In its announcement, the company said that this latest funding would be used to further push its white-labelling strategy—the development of customized software that is sold unbranded, so that buyers can label it with their own brand as though they had developed it themselves. The software will be offered to commercial banks around Asia.
Rosaline Chow Koo, the founder and CEO of CXA Group, had said in 2019 that CXA was expected to break even this year and hence would not need additional funding. However she also mentioned in today's announcement that the white-label strategy requires a great deal of engineering work. Some of it has already been completed.
“Building an enterprise-grade white-label software that can be integrated with the complex systems of banks, insurers and payroll firms is no trivial task and it has involved us having to build a reference microservices architecture that is scalable, API-led and open source, from scratch," she explained.
However, she believes that the payoff—for the company, its customers, and the platform's end users—will be a game-changer.
“We have built the CXA platform to directly integrate the entire healthcare spectrum, from insurance, telemedicine, e-pharmacy, in-clinic consultations, dental and health screenings to wellness offerings like fitness classes and mental health, with a proven model that delivers cost savings for employers by eliminating intermediaries like agents or third-party administrators," she said. "By adapting this platform—one that people could use every single day—and making it available through banks to SME employers and employees, our ambition is also to help the banks serve more personalised bancassurance offerings that individuals need and want in their personal lives, at precisely the right moment."
Although current market sentiment is none too upbeat, especially for startups, it is not so surprising that a proven company like CXA, which currently serves over 600 clients in 20 countries and is, furthermore, associated with healthcare, would be able to hold investor confidence during this period.