Indonesia-based InsurTech Qoala has been selected in Sequoia Capital India's 16-week-long 'Surge' programme alongside 17 other Asian startups. Launched in September last year, Qoala works with major insurers to develop insurance products for new use cases ranging from flight delays, hotel quality checks, e-commerce logistics, cancelled movie tickets, phone screen damages which is sold to end customers through a wide network of ecosystem partners.

The InsurTech uses a combination of underwriting risk for high frequency events, digital fraud detection and a photo-based claims process via machine learning. With their offerings, it aims to create a seamless customer experience and help insurers reduce costs and risk through digital fraud detection

Qoala was founded by Oxford University and UCL graduates Harshet Lunani and Tommy Martin, and has been chosen to be part of the regulatory sandbox initiative of Indonesia’ Financial Services Authority (OJK).

Over 1,570 start-ups across India and Southeast Asia from a wide range of sectors applied for Surge in end-February. Apart from Surge, approximately 12 other seed funds and institutional co-investors are joining the Surge rounds which brings about a total investment of $36m across the 17 start-ups.