UNDP and Generali Announce the Winning Solution of the SME Insurance Innovation Challenge in Malaysia
UNDP and Generali Announce the Winning Solution of the SME Insurance Innovation Challenge in Malaysia
POSTED 06 November, 2024
Generali and UNDP have announced VSure Tech as the winner of the joint “Insurance Innovation Challenge” designed to boost the resilience of micro and small to medium enterprises (MSMEs) in Malaysia.
MSMEs are the backbone of Malaysia’s economy, accounting for 97.2% of total business establishments and employing 7.3 million people. At the same time, MSMEs face growing risks in ASEAN, particularly from natural disasters, with southeast Asia being the most disaster-prone region in the world. Those risks are exacerbated by a low insurance penetration rate, with less than 10% of small businesses having access to insurance.
In September 2023, the UNDP-Generali Insurance Innovation Challenge launched a call for solutions tailored to meet the growing challenges faced by SMEs. The solutions were required to introduce new business models and digital technologies, protecting businesses from risks, enabling their stability and growth while breaking new ground in the realm of insurance.
VSure Tech, an integrated fintech and Insurtech company, was selected among five solutions showcased in Kuala Lumpur during an SME Resilience event organized by Generali and UNDP. The SME micro insurance solution will be accessible to MSMEs through a fully digital commercial platform. The solution includes comprehensive commercial risk products and well as offering ‘stackable’ flexibility options based on each businesses’ stage of growth and maturity. In the first year, VSure Tech will already aim to reach sixty thousand MSMEs, with a projected incremental adoption rate of 6-8% year on year.
(From left to right): Massimo Rustico, Italian Ambassador in Malaysia, Fabrice Benard, Chief Executive Officer of Generali Insurance Malaysia Berhad and Country Head for Generali Entities in Malaysia and Mr. Haoliang Xu, UN Under-Secretary-General and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) present a cheque to Vsure Tech’s Co-founder and CEO Eddy Wong and Co-founder and COO Jason Ho
“We are privileged and deeply honored to be given the opportunity to collaborate on this impactful initiative, empowering SMEs and MSMEs to build stronger financial resilience while promoting essential financial literacy,"
— Eddy Wong, CEO and MD, VSure Group.
This SME innovation challenge is part of Generali and UNDP’s global partnership to build the financial resilience of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and global value chains. Under this partnership, Generali has committed technical and financial resources to UNDP’s Insurance and Risk Finance Facility (IRFF) in order to increase the socioeconomic wellbeing of some of the world’s most vulnerable people and places. The partnership blends Generali’s insurance expertise with UNDP’s long-term focus on financing and development.
Read UNDP and Generali's joint report on Building MSME Resilience in Southeast Asia: https://irff.undp.org/publications/building-msme-resilience-southeast-asia