Malaysian digital-first pet insurance startup, Oyen raises US$420k seed funding

• Claims to be pioneer digital-first pet insurance provider in Malaysia
• Funding from Hustle Fund and angel investors from global tech companies

Oyen, a digital-first pet healthcare insurance provider based in Malaysia, has raised US$420,000 (RM1.7 million) in a seed round participated by backers such as Hustle Fund, alongside angel investors who are former and current executives from Airbnb, Facebook, and Rocket Internet.

The company will use the funds to enhance its proprietary digital insurance platform and reinforce its market position within Malaysia’s pet healthcare insurance ecosystem. It is aggressively expanding its recruitment in various roles in technology (such as software engineering) and non-technology (such as growth marketing). These efforts will serve as the firm’s springboard to become Southeast Asia’s leading pet healthcare insurer and move towards offering more holistic pet healthcare services to pet owners such as vet medical protection, preventative care, and wellness, among other benefits.

“The number of people who have pets for companionship have increased during one of the world’s biggest recent crises, and our platform was specifically designed to alleviate concerns by pet owners – especially new ones – when managing their pets’ medical needs. With the support from our investors, Oyen is now better positioned to expand and enhance its services across Malaysia, while also exploring how we can extend the benefits of our platform to pet owners at the regional level,” said Kevin Hoong, founder and CEO of Oyen.

"Southeast Asia is an exciting region with a lot of growth ahead of it, driven not just by accelerating technology adoption across industries, but also startups like Oyen who bring a product-led, customer-centered perspective to traditional products like insurance. We are excited by the growth that Kevin and his team have achieved in Malaysia and are keen to see the innovations that they will bring to the pet insurance ecosystem – both as an investor and dog-lover,” said Shiyan Koh (pic), General Partner and cofounder at Hustle Fund.

Established in Malaysia, Oyen’s objective is to become the region’s category leader in pet healthcare insurance, especially since it is still a greenfield market with untapped potential. The company is driving towards having 100,000 pets insured in Southeast Asia within the next three years – half of which is expected to come from the company’s first market, Malaysia.

In Malaysia, Oyen is able to provide the country’s highest veterinary medical coverage, with up to RM8,000 (US$1,941) of the amount claimable in vet medical fees, up to RM1,000 in pet burial cost, and up to RM50,000 in third party liability claims.

[RM1 = US$0.241]