NewsPost: Philippines

Oona Insurance (Oona), the leading general insurer in Southeast Asia, and UnionBank Financial Services and Insurance Brokerage Inc. (UFSI) have agreed to partner and provide non-life insurance solutions to UnionBank Wealth Management clients in a simple ceremony held on January 25, 2024.

The partnership will allow UnionBank’s high net worth clients to access Oona’s digital platforms curated specifically for UFSI clients, enabling both companies to scale up their existing portfolios.

The collaboration, chaired and witnessed by Manoj Varma, UnionBank’s Head for Consumer Banking; Gautam Sharma, UnionBank’s Head for Wealth Sales and Distribution; and Abishek Bhatia, Founder and Group CEO Oona Insurance, is expected to lead to more awareness and appreciation of the importance of non-life insurance and to encourage better financial protection for UFSI clients and their assets.

Furthermore, it complements the expert and proven wealth management services provided by UFSI.

“As a wealth management brokerage company, we are custodians of our clients’ financial dreams. Part of our responsibility is to help them sustainably grow and protect their wealth. Oona offers a wide range of general insurance solutions including Travel, Personal Accident, Property and Motor. This will allow UFSI to not only protect the lives of our clients but also the assets that they have worked so hard to accumulate. Through Oona, we can also help our clients feel safe and protected when they travel for work or leisure,” said Ramon Melchor Tejero, UFSI President and Chief Executive Officer.

For Oona, on the other hand, its latest collaboration with the country’s multi-awarded universal bank further strengthens its reputation as a game changer in the industry.

It is a testament that its digital platforms are working to ensure accessibility, affordability and seamless experiences for its clients.

“We are excited as we embark on a dynamic partnership that means the union of shared goals, commitment to mutual growth, synergizing strengths and innovation. As we provide non-life insurance to UFSI’s wealth segment, we are committed to delivering unparalleled innovative services as well as customer-centric solutions that will elevate the non-life insurance experience of UFSI’s clients,” said Ramon Zandueta, Oona Insurance Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer.

Zandueta also added that high net worth clients have particular needs that have high insurance values ​​leading to bigger premium accounts.

By providing specific solutions, the agreement with UFSI will solidify Oona’s position in the country’s competitive financial landscape.

Aside from a seamless experience, Oona’s collaboration with UFSI also ensures utmost security and protection of the customers’ personal and financial information.

Manila/Singapore – December 7, 2023 – Insular Life (InLife) and Oona Insurance group (Oona) today jointly announced that they are entering into an agreement, with InLife selling its 40% stake in their non-life insurance joint venture, Oona Insular Insurance Corporation (Oona Philippines), making it Oona’s fully owned subsidiary. Oona Philippines and Insular Life will continue their cooperation arrangements to cross-sell insurance products in the Philippines.

The agreement is expected to further boost Oona Philippines’ status in the general insurance industry, building upon the series of innovations and services that it has brought to the Philippine market since it set up shop in the country last year. InLife, on the other hand, will focus on its core life insurance and healthcare business to sustain the momentum it has achieved in the last couple of years. Latest data show the life insurer jumped to number five at the end of this year’s first half in terms of its New Business Annualized Premium Equivalent. InLife plans to support its scale and innovation efforts in its operations and distribution channels in its bid to move further up the rankings.

“As InLife moves forward to achieve accelerated growth and continue in its journey to provide customer service excellence through digital transformation and innovation, we will continue to support Oona’s plan to strengthen its presence in the Philippines,” said Executive Chairperson Nina D. Aguas.

“We are deeply grateful to InLife for being a remarkable partner during our lift-off stage over the past year, and we look forward to maintaining our cross-selling partnership with InLife going forward. We are very optimistic and believe this move will help us push for higher growth as we position ourselves to be a major player in the Philippines’ non-life insurance market,” said Abhishek Bhatia, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Oona Insurance group.

Oona Insurance, a leading insurance provider in South East Asia, is sparing no effort to ensure that its partners have seamless interface with the brand as it formally introduced its Kahoona Platform in the Philippines.

Dubbed as the “Ultimate Insurance Business Tool,” Kahoona is equipped with an “Intuitive Performance Dashboard” and is replete with a host of digitally enabled features to make the entire sales and buying journey a breeze. Touted as the first of its kind, the platform will enable end to end sales journeys for Travel, CTPL, and Motor Comprehensive insurance to start, and with additional products to be added in the coming days.

The Kahoona platform has the ability of tracking sales and performance through its “Activity Tracker” and also has “Superior Selling Functionalities” that brings customer experience to another level but without the complications and the headaches of any paperwork.

“Partners and agents wanting to know more about Oona Insurance products merely have to scan Kahoona’s ‘Quick Product Preview’ features to get the required information in a flash. They can do this anytime, at their convenience without a fuss,” said Abhishek Bhatia, Oona Insurance founder and group chief executive officer.
Once an interested customer has decided to acquire a particular Oona Insurance product and is interested in knowing its price, the agent can get it instantly via Kahoona without any lag-time or hassle, and send it to their customer via email or phone.

Lastly, Kahoona is also capable of transacting and making sales to customers easy, as it allows the agents to complete the transaction at their end or send product/payment links to the client instantly and for immediate action through a wide range of payment platforms to choose from. Aside from convenience, these choices likewise ensure their safety and privacy.

As a game changer in the insurance industry, Oona’s Kahoona Sale Tool has feature rich functions that include a “Resource Centre,” “Auto-fill Forms using OCR” also known as Optical Character Recognition) and “Image-based Risk Assessment”.

“Moreover, businesses planning to use Kahoona as a sale tool, will also find out that it is equipped with a “Easy Sales Management” feature allowing agents to stay-on top with daily reminders and keep track of customers and potential leads,” Bhatia explained.

The Kahoona Sales Tool can be used on all communication devices. Bhatia said the launch of Kahoona is part of Oona’s desire to make the process of selling general insurance coverage a seamless experience through state of the art technology.

“We would like to be in the forefront of introducing new technology that would cater not only to our customers but also to our partners. Combining care, empathy and the best possible technology available such as the Kahoona Sales Tool gives Oona agents and partners a great advantage over our competitors. Our services can be immediately felt and appreciated by both customers and partners,” said Ramon Zandueta, Oona Insurance Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer.

He added that merging Kahoona’s capabilities to Oona will greatly enhance its reputation of being a “gamechanger”. Zandueta maintained that “memorable experiences are part of every meaningful brand engagement” and emphasized that Kahoona will add this appeal to Oona here in the Philippines. He also pointed out that Kahoona’s introduction renews Oona’s commitment to “make immediate use of next level technology to the Philippines.”

“Our primary concern is always the customer, and we also want our partners and agents to benefit from having the access and the platform with the best class technology available. By using Kahoona, they can also have the best experience in selling, managing and satisfying customers’ needs and demands in a very competent and organized way,” Zandueta added.

He also expressed hope that Kahoona will be helpful in bringing in more efficiency and growth to Oona as a whole.

Inquirer.net

Hardly a day goes by without a passenger recounting how an airline spoiled their trip due to delays. Data tells us that 30 percent of flights are delayed and one disruption caused, perhaps by damaged plane checkups, rundown runway, or stormy weather, leads to consequential customer frustrations.

Starting September 7, 2023, Oona will turn these frustrations into moments of delight with the launch of its innovative Smart Flight Delay Insurance targeted at the Filipino traveling community https://smart-flight-delay.myoona.ph/travel-delay/. When a traveler comes across such setbacks, Oona alleviates the flight delay experience with an instant lounge voucher the moment a delay is announced, turning the moment of inconvenience into a moment of delight.

Oona’s Smart Flight Delay Insurance offers paperless and instantly accessible purchase options on its website (myoona.ph). In addition to this, Oona has enabled the purchase via Whatsapp and Chatbot, all with GenAI capabilities, the first in the Philippines.

“Oona is focused on becoming the best customer driven provider of non-life insurance in Southeast Asia and we want to start by solving a very common pain point of Filipinos – the inconvenient experience concerning flight delays,” Oona Insurance Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Abhishek Bhatia said. Besides this, we’ve also solved another pain point by making the product totally paperless and no hassle of filing claims.

“We see a great opportunity to serve the Philippines as demand for international travel has started to return to normal. We are excited to lead the way in disrupting and providing cutting edge products that are truly valuable to Filipinos,” Bhatia explained.

What makes our product appealing, Oona Insurance Philippines President and Chief Executive Officer Ramon Zandueta maintained, is its affordability to all Filipino international travelers. For just ₱149, a customer can spend their time in the comfort of a lounge during a travel delay which in general circumstances would just “grin and bear it”. In addition, this covers not just the departure, but up to 4 flights in the itinerary, including return flights. And if a person is traveling with family/friends, up to 3 additional persons can be added for only ₱119 each. Moreover, an individual is also covered for personal accidents – either injuries or death – (for up to ₱10,000) when riding as a passenger.

“The booming travel industry, disruptive financial services market and digitally savvy consumer in the Philippines are all triggers for Oona to offer this innovative solution. We are looking forward to growing not only this line of business but all our upcoming products via partnerships to serve more Filipinos.” he added.

As part of the initial set of online offers, Oona will also offer Travel and Compulsory Third-Party Liability (CTPL) Insurance via the same online channels – making it convenient and hassle free for customers.

Oona’s launch in the Philippines is part of the group’s expansion strategy in Southeast Asia as it seeks to grow deeper within existing geographies. Its diverse product portfolio, strong distribution relationships and robust infrastructure deliver Oona an immediate foothold in the region upon which to build its business.