Sharian Raj, the co-founder and CEO of Senang, shares how his new product will allow his insurtech startup to launch in new markets
The Ready For Launch series asks questions of entrepreneurs to get the inside story behind a new startup or product launch.
Sharian Raj, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Malaysian insurtech startup Senang, which means "simple" in Bahasa Malaysia, says he has long dreamed of disrupting how insurance worked. "I started Senang to make microinsurance, or insurance with low premiums, accessible to both businesses and individuals, allowing them to pay what they need when they need it."
Now, Raj has decided to expand Senang's offering to a wider audience. It has partnered with payment service provider GHL Systems to launch SenangSikit, a new product that allows consumers to buy insurance for their purchased items.
Raj shares more about SenangSikit here.
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Please introduce SenangSikit.
SenangSikit is an insurance product that enables customers to buy microinsurance coverage of accidental damage for their purchases when they're at the checkout counter of a store.
What is its value proposition?
Our idea is to make the process of buying insurance as easy as possible for customers. The partnership with GHL came at the right time because they wanted to offer more than just payments via their point of sales (POS) terminals and provide the convenience of buying an insurance policy on the spot.
We have set the premium at six percent of the item's value and customers that buy the policy can enjoy one year of coverage for accidental damage upon registering their item with SenangSikit. The products we cover include electrical appliances, cameras, clothing, footwear, mobile phones and furniture. Claims are also streamlined—all a customer needs to provide are the original receipt and a picture of the damaged product.
We wanted to tap into the offline retail market because it has not been attempted before and GHL has a sizable base of 100,000 merchants. For the merchants, SenangSikit can act as an additional source of income, as they can earn a commission from selling our policy.
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