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JustInCase gets approval from regulator for P2P insurance, raises $1.4M pre-series A

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based insuretech startup JustInCase has been officially registered as a small-amount / short-term insurer by the Tokyo Finance Bureau. In response to this, the company will officially launch an insurance business and new mobile app called JustInCase on the app store as of July 1st. Unlike an old app they were offering on a testing basis, the new app will start by offering an insurance service to cover repair costs in the event of a malfunction for smartphone users but add new service features later on. In conjunction with the launch announcement, the company revealed that it had raised 150 million yen (about $1.4 million US) in a pre-series A round from 500 Startups Japan, Globis Capital Partners, Line Ventures and others. They have raised a total of 195 million yen (about $1.8 million) to date including the funds in a seed round. The new app will score users on a daily basis about how they carefully use their smartphone so that premium rebate will be given to them at renewal of insurance according to the safety score measured in the last three months. If one has no claim which has been filed during…

Image credit: JustInCase

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based insuretech startup JustInCase has been officially registered as a small-amount / short-term insurer by the Tokyo Finance Bureau. In response to this, the company will officially launch an insurance business and new mobile app called JustInCase on the app store as of July 1st. Unlike an old app they were offering on a testing basis, the new app will start by offering an insurance service to cover repair costs in the event of a malfunction for smartphone users but add new service features later on.

In conjunction with the launch announcement, the company revealed that it had raised 150 million yen (about $1.4 million US) in a pre-series A round from 500 Startups Japan, Globis Capital Partners, Line Ventures and others. They have raised a total of 195 million yen (about $1.8 million) to date including the funds in a seed round.

The new app will score users on a daily basis about how they carefully use their smartphone so that premium rebate will be given to them at renewal of insurance according to the safety score measured in the last three months. If one has no claim which has been filed during the latest insurance period or has a high score indicating a lower risk, one gets a 30% discount on average for payment.

A Screenshot of the new app.
Image credit: JustInCase

JustInCase tried to deal with P2P (peer-to-peer) insurance though the fact of the matter is that they virtually adopted it due to regulatory limitations.

Generally speaking, P2P applies the concept of a sharing economy to insurance, i.e. friends and groups of users (pools) who are interested in insurance against the same risk pay the insurance premiums, and a system is adopted whereby insurance money is paid out from this pool. P2P insurance has various merits including the risk being easier to calculate compared with conventional insurance, insurance products that were impossible in the past can be easily developed, insurance money fraud and moral hazard problems are less likely to occur, and ex-post facto premiums can be kept cheap (through cashback, etc.).

Meanwhile, JustInCase took a while to get approval from the regulator because it was the first attempt to launch a (virtual) P2P insurance in Japan where users can complete all application steps in the app and require no interaction with any insurance representative. The company says that it actually needed 467 days to complete the registration as an insurer on June 25th while its application process started back in March of 2017.

In this space, we’ve seen emerging P2P insurance startups such as Sure (having raised $10.6M US so far), Lemonade (recently raised $120M US from Softbank, GV or Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital and Allianz last year-end) or Berlin-based Friendsurance (raised more than $15M US from Horizon Ventures, the investment firm of Hong Kong billionaire Li Ka-Shing).

Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy

Japan’s JustInCase snags another seed round to launch P2P insurance for mobile repairs

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based insuretech startup JustInCase announced on Wednesday that it has raised additional seed funding from 500 Startups Japan and Naoki Aoyagi. Aoyagi is the former CFO of Japanese internet giant Gree (TSE:3632) and now the CEO of MerPay, the financial services subsidiary of Japanese C2C commerce unicorn startup Mercari. Aoyagi participated in this round as an angel investor while 500 Startups Japan made a follow-on investment after their participation in the previous seed round. Although JustInCase has not yet clarified the amount of each individual funding, it did confirm that the cumulative funding amount including this follow-on round along with last year’s is 45 million yen (about $414K US). The company is preparing its first product “Sumaho Hoken (Smartphone Insurance)”, an insurance service to cover repair costs in the event of a malfunction for smartphone users. It uses AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms to analyze user behavior patterns, and conducts a risk assessment for each user allowing the company to provide a service with optimum premiums. As a result, it will be cheaper than Apple Care and other major telecom carriers’ insurance fees for smartphone users. In preparation of launching the official Sumaho Hoken service,…

Front row from the left: Hiroo Koizumi (CTO, justInCase), Kazy Hata (CEO, justInCase), Shinnichi Nasukawa (CFO, justInCase)
Back row from the left: James Riney (Head, 500 Startups Japan), Naoki Aoyagi, Yohei Sawayama (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan)
Image credit: justInCase

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based insuretech startup JustInCase announced on Wednesday that it has raised additional seed funding from 500 Startups Japan and Naoki Aoyagi. Aoyagi is the former CFO of Japanese internet giant Gree (TSE:3632) and now the CEO of MerPay, the financial services subsidiary of Japanese C2C commerce unicorn startup Mercari. Aoyagi participated in this round as an angel investor while 500 Startups Japan made a follow-on investment after their participation in the previous seed round. Although JustInCase has not yet clarified the amount of each individual funding, it did confirm that the cumulative funding amount including this follow-on round along with last year’s is 45 million yen (about $414K US).

The company is preparing its first product “Sumaho Hoken (Smartphone Insurance)”, an insurance service to cover repair costs in the event of a malfunction for smartphone users. It uses AI (artificial intelligence) algorithms to analyze user behavior patterns, and conducts a risk assessment for each user allowing the company to provide a service with optimum premiums. As a result, it will be cheaper than Apple Care and other major telecom carriers’ insurance fees for smartphone users.

Sumaho Hoken (Smartphone Insurance)
Image credit: JustInCase

In preparation of launching the official Sumaho Hoken service, the company is coordinating with a local bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Finance to register as a small short-term insurance company but prior to the official launch, taking advantage of the exclusion provision of the Insurance Business Law (Article 2 of the Business Law), the company began an invitation-only service for pre-registered users from Wednesday.

Upon completion of the small short-term insurance company registration, the advance service is expected to shift to an official service. Due to the restrictions of applicable laws and the like, there is a possibility that the products and insurance premium conditions of the official service will be different from those of the advance service.

Sumaho Hoken is classified as a “P2P (peer-to-peer) insurance” which applies the concept of a sharing economy to insurance, i.e. friends and groups of users (pools) who are interested in insurance against the same risk pay the insurance premiums, and a system is adopted whereby insurance money is paid out from this pool. P2P insurance has various merits including the risk being easier to calculate compared with conventional insurance, insurance products that were impossible in the past can be easily developed, insurance money fraud and moral hazard problems are less likely to occur, and ex-post facto premiums can be kept cheap (through cash back, etc.).

In this space, we’ve seen emerging P2P insurance startups such as Sure (having raised $10.6M US so far), Lemonade (recently raised $120M US from Softbank, GV or Google Ventures, Sequoia Capital, and Allianz last yearend), and Berlin-based Friendsurance (raised more than $15M US from Horizon Ventures, the investment firm of Hong Kong biliionaire Li Ka-Shing.

Translated by Amanda Amasaka
Edited by Masaru Ikeda

Japan’s JustInCase to launch AI-powered repair cost insurance for smartphone users

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See the original story in Japanese. Tokyo-based InsurTech startup JustInCase announced last week that it had fundraised from 500 Startups Japan in a seed round. The raised amount was not disclosed but is estimated to be a few hundred thousand dollars. justInCase was founded in 2016 by Kazuya Hata (CEO) who had served the leading actuary consultancy Milliman and has been providing risk management services such as Asset Liability Management (ALM) to insurance companies, Hiroo Koizumi (CTO) who had engaged in modeling / data analysis of assets and liabilities, Shinichi Nasukawa (CFO) who had been involved in development of advertisement business platform at an ad agency as a data scientist and others. The team consists of technology-driven members as CEO and CFO that have engineering background, in addition to CTO. Smartphone Insurance — justInCase’s first product planned for launch soon — is a repair cost insurance service for smartphones. By analyzing users’ activity patterns with Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm and evaluating risk for each user, it provides insurance service with optimized fee. With this method, the firm realizes a cheaper service than AppleCare or ones provided by major carriers to smartphone users. Since this field is a niche market which…

(From L to R) Yohei Sawayama (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan), Nakamura Takuo (SEO Engineer, JustInCase), Shinichi Nasukawa (CFO, JustInCase), Kazuya Hata (CEO, JustInCase), Hiroo Koizumi (CTO, JustInCase), Kuniyuki Iizawa (Designer, JustInCase), James Riney (Managing Partner, 500 Startups Japan)
Image credit: JustInCase

See the original story in Japanese.

Tokyo-based InsurTech startup JustInCase announced last week that it had fundraised from 500 Startups Japan in a seed round. The raised amount was not disclosed but is estimated to be a few hundred thousand dollars.

justInCase was founded in 2016 by Kazuya Hata (CEO) who had served the leading actuary consultancy Milliman and has been providing risk management services such as Asset Liability Management (ALM) to insurance companies, Hiroo Koizumi (CTO) who had engaged in modeling / data analysis of assets and liabilities, Shinichi Nasukawa (CFO) who had been involved in development of advertisement business platform at an ad agency as a data scientist and others. The team consists of technology-driven members as CEO and CFO that have engineering background, in addition to CTO.

Smartphone Insurance
Image credit: JustInCase

Smartphone Insurance — justInCase’s first product planned for launch soon — is a repair cost insurance service for smartphones. By analyzing users’ activity patterns with Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm and evaluating risk for each user, it provides insurance service with optimized fee. With this method, the firm realizes a cheaper service than AppleCare or ones provided by major carriers to smartphone users.

Since this field is a niche market which major insurance companies do not deal with, it is possible to generate new insurance demand and to establish cooperative relationships with conventional players. justInCase has been coordinating activities with the Kanto Local Finance Bureau in order to be registered as a small amounts and short term insurance provider, and plans an official launch of the service within 2018. Furthermore, it started accepting user pre-registrations on its website from the day.

While the details about Smartphone Insurance have not been  revealed yet, it is thought to be an app capable of self-diagnosis when insuring /claiming insurance in addition to carrying out user activity analysis like Sure, a similar service in the US. The Sure team behind the service is in its third year since its foundation and had raised $10.6 million in total including the series A round fundraising conducted this year.

As to same kinds of on-demand insurances for individuals in Japan, Warrantee launched Warrantee Now this month and Trov is expected to enter the Japanese market, although AI algorithm is not used in the calculation of insurance fee of these services.

Translated by Taijiro Takeda
Edited by “Tex” Pomeroy