Regional Insurtech Igloo extends footprint in Malaysia with Pine Labs partnership, appoints country head

• Appoints industry veteran, Amitabh Singh, to lead growth in Malaysia
• Igloo partnership to offer affordable phone screen & Mobile 360 protection 

Regional insurtech firm Igloo has announced a new partnership with digital payments service provider, Pine Labs, marking the extension of its regional footprint in Malaysia. 

Through the partnership, Igloo can expand further into Malaysia while Pine Labs will offer shoppers hassle-free and easy mobile phone protection solutions under the IglooCare Program, which offers repair and replacement of the gadget by up to 100% of the gadget retail price at IglooCare repair and service nationwide.

Pine Labs currently has over 246,000 merchants in 3700 cities and towns across India and Malaysia. 

Meanwhile, as part of Igloo’s plan to extend its presence in Malaysia, the company has appointed Amitabh Singh, as country manager for Igloo, Malaysia. He will be responsible for Igloo’s overall country operations across business development, partnerships, marketing and operations. With nearly two decades of experience in financial services, Amitabh has held several leadership roles across Southeast Asia.

In addition, Igloo is expanding its team in Malaysia and making key hires across business development, operations, customer service & Sales management.

According to Amitabh (pic, right), the partnership marks a significant milestone in Igloo’s expansion in Malaysia. “We are happy to partner with Pine Labs to offer our IglooCare  phone protection solutions. Igloo aims to work with more local partners to provide protection platform solutions that are easy to purchase, affordable, and directly impact consumers’ daily lives.”

“These lifestyle-focused solutions allow consumers to experience minimal disruption and financial loss to their daily lives - across multiple categories including electronics & durables, health benefits products, Lifestyle coverage and SME solutions - all of which are enabled through our technology platform,” he added.

"Pine Labs has been at the forefront of technology in the payments solutions space across India and Southeast Asia. In Malaysia we are expanding our footprint rapidly by entering into strategic alliances with leading banks and retail brands,” said Chayan Hazra, head of Payment Business - APAC for Pine Labs.

“We are very happy to be partnering with technology platforms like Igloo to enable us to expand protection offerings to our merchants. At Pine Labs, we are always striving to get the best products and services for our merchant partners and we find Igloo provides us the best platform in terms of options and roll out flexibility,” he added.

​​Igloo has established over 30 partnerships this year across diverse industries in Southeast Asia. In July, the insurtech company partnered with regional foodpanda Singapore to launch protection solutions for gig economy workers. In September, the company launched partnerships with leading e-Wallet platforms in the Philippines GCash and DANA in Indonesia to provide online shopping protection (PH) and phone screen protection (ID) respectively.  

In November, Igloo partnered its first digital health brand, HD, to provide health-related micro-insurance products via the HDmall healthcare marketplace platform in Thailand.  The company also boasts several award wins this year, namely “Most Innovative InsurTech Company”, “2021 Inclusive Fintech 50” and “Insurtech Initiative of the Year - Singapore”.