In a world that is seeing game-changing disruptions across geographies and sectors, Singapore has positioned itself as a centre of innovation. Much like India, the financial services industry in Singapore is also undergoing transformation. Today, the digital wave is changing the way we work. Several organisations in Singapore like Visa, PayPal, KPMG, DBS and more are working with technology companies to deal with the digital disruption.
Prudential: Bridging scale-ups globally to enter the Singapore market
Prudential, one of Singapore’s leading and longest-standing life insurers, is riding this transformation wave – the insurer has been steadily leveraging technology to provide its customers with better service, while making work smarter for its employees and financial consultants.
It has been driving this change through various initiatives, one of which is its flagship digital innovation programme, the PRU Fintegrate Partnership (PRU Fintegrate). The programme welcomes technology players from around the world to play a part in building its innovation story.
Wilf Blackburn, CEO, Prudential Singapore said, “Through PRU Fintegrate, we want to collaborate with partners who can work with us to find technological solutions that make insurance simpler for our customers; make work more efficient for our people; and make healthy living a breeze for everyone.”
Ms Kalai Natarajan, Head, Strategic Engagements (InsurTech Ecosystems), Prudential Singapore added, “Singapore is a key innovation test-bed for the Prudential Group because of the country’s strong digital infrastructure and conducive business environment which make the development and deployment of technology solutions much easier. New innovative solutions that are created for the Singapore business can potentially be deployed across our 12 life insurance markets in Asia to benefit our 15 million customers in the region.”
Indian scale-ups can bring innovative solutions to Singapore
Now in its third edition, PRU Fintegrate is welcoming applications from scale-ups, companies with a track record in creating solutions that can be applied at scale and speed, an existing customer base and secured funding.
This year, the focus is on five business areas that have been identified for transformation. Prudential has identified opportunities for collaboration in each of these areas through 12 business challenges.
Challenges range from developing solutions that will provide Prudential’s one million customers with 24/7 access to managing their claims and having a comprehensive view of their policy portfolios, to providing Prudential’s 5,000 financial consultants with tools to help them better engage their clients, manage their work and their own performance.
Prudential is also looking to leverage technology to streamline some of its internal processes which include developing platforms for bulk payments and real-time tracking of premium payments. The insurer is looking to the global tech community to collaborate with it to achieve these outcomes.
Ms Kalai Natarajan said, “We believe in innovating with technology companies from around the world. We want to find like-minded partners and bring them to Singapore where they can work with our local teams to design solutions that will help us chart the future of insurance.”
For Indian scale-ups, PRU Fintegrate makes for an attractive proposition
The identified scale-up from the 2019 edition will have the opportunity to partner with Prudential Singapore to run a proof of concept based on a mutually-agreed scope, and will also be invited to showcase their solution at the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019 – the world’s biggest FinTech event.
For companies looking to expand their footprint across Asia, Prudential’s programme in Singapore serves as an exciting starting point, and a possible springboard. There are a plethora of innovative solutions and business models in India that are well-suited to the local environment and needs. PRU Fintegrate gives Indian scaleups a chance to hone their offerings for successful application in diverse markets.
Eligibility criteria
Participating scale-ups will be assessed based on their ability to put forward a value proposition that solves any of the problem statements while meeting technical and commercial considerations, and proving market opportunity.
Timeline for the 2019 PRU Fintegrate Partnership Programme
- 10 May: Applications close
- May – June: Shortlisting and start of collaboration period
- August: Demo Day
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