Asia-Pacific InsurTech investment plummets: Funds shift to infrastructure and platforms

Insurtech investment in the Asia-Pacific region is undergoing a profound transformation: not only is the scale shrinking, but the logic of capital flow has also fundamentally changed. According to NTT Data's "2026 Insurtech Global Outlook," the region attracted only about $4.1 billion in funding between 2022 and 2025, a drop of more than half from approximately $9.1 billion between 2018 and 2021. The number of transactions during the same period also fell from 383 to 202.

From "Disruption" to "Enablement"

This contraction is not simply a market cooldown, but a structural shift in investment focus. The report points out that capital is moving away from challenger digital insurers attempting to replace traditional insurance companies, toward participants that provide technology, infrastructure, and distribution platforms for existing insurers. In other words, the industry narrative has shifted from "disruption" back to "enablement."

This shift is particularly evident in the regional distribution of funds. China's share has declined significantly, while the combined share of Singapore and Indonesia has jumped from about 12% to 35%, and India's share has grown from around 25% to 45%, making it the unquestioned biggest beneficiary of Asia-Pacific insurtech.

Several recent representative transactions confirm this trend. Singapore's bolttech completed a $147 million Series C round in 2025, and Indonesia's Qoala secured $47 million in Series C funding; both are insurance distribution and technology infrastructure platforms. Additionally, Igloo in Southeast Asia, the partnership between Japan's Smartpay and Chubb, and platforms such as India's InsuranceDekho, MediBuddy, and Perfios have all attracted capital.

Protection Gap: Core Driver of the Asian Market

The backdrop for this transformation is the huge insurance protection gap in the Asia-Pacific region. Swiss Re estimates that 92% of natural disaster losses in the region in 2025 were uninsured. This gap has fueled demand for embedded insurance, data-driven risk prevention, and collaborative models between insurers, technology companies, and service providers. NTT Data emphasizes that future growth will depend on integrating insurance into other products and services and intervening in risks proactively through real-time data.

Meanwhile, globally uninsured cybersecurity risks are expected to surge from $171 billion in 2023 to over $700 billion by 2030, while climate-related uninsured losses have already reached $180 billion, and liability claims have risen by 57%. These macro risks are reshaping the direction of insurtech innovation.

Artificial Intelligence: Deployment Gap and Cost-Saving Potential

The report also finds a significant AI usage gap within the insurance industry: about 66% of insurance employees already use AI tools, but only 22% of insurers have put AI systems into full production. The barrier is not the technology itself, but trust, governance, and operational architecture. NTT Data estimates that AI-based automation and process improvements could reduce insurers' operating costs by up to 35%.To this end, the report calls on insurers to use AI for continuous risk monitoring, decision-making, and prevention, while ensuring explainability, compliance, and human oversight. Demand for personalized preventive insurance services is also rising: spending on hyper-personalization is growing at an annual rate of over 35%, and 67% of employers are increasing budgets for prevention programs. In 2025, the embedded insurance market had already exceeded $116 billion.

Financing Channels Shift: Debt Financing Surpasses Equity

Notably, the financing structure for insurtech companies is also changing. U.S. insurtech IPOs are at their most active in 20 years, while debt financing for startups has reached $9.5 billion, surpassing equity financing for the first time. This indicates that the market has raised higher requirements for the profitability and cash flow of insurtech enterprises.

In summary, what Asia-Pacific insurtech is experiencing is not merely a simple cyclical downturn, but a deep strategic shift—from competing for end users to providing underlying capabilities for the industry. Capital is flowing more rationally toward infrastructure-type players that can truly narrow the protection gap and improve operational efficiency. For China’s insurtech ecosystem, this change in landscape serves as both a warning and a hint: if it fails to reshape its value proposition, its regional hub status could be further eroded by India and Southeast Asia.