[Financial Insider] CEO Kim Ji-tae "Even if the insurance industry declines, InsurTech is rapidly growing"

The First Listed Insurtech Company in Korea, IGnet
Operating the AI Insurance Diagnosis and Recommendation Service 'Bodak'
First Profitable Year in 2023...
Full-scale Expansion into Healthcare and Vietnam This Year

"There are many large marts like E-Mart across the country, so why did Coupang succeed?"

Kim Ji-tae, CEO of IGnet, the operator of the AI-based insurance diagnosis application 'Bodak,' used this analogy to describe his company's competitiveness compared to others. While large corporate general agencies (GAs) focus on expanding branches and face-to-face sales, IGnet aims to maximize profits through AI technology-based non-face-to-face sales. He said, "Large GAs and IGnet play the same platform role, but there is a big difference in operating margins," adding, "Our technology advancement directly translates into profits."

IGnet is the first insurtech (insurance + technology) company listed on the KOSDAQ market in Korea, having entered in February. Established in 2014, it gained attention by launching Bodak in 2019. Bodak is a service that recommends optimal insurance products to customers, with a cumulative platform user base of 2.2 million. After receiving financial MyData usage approval in 2021, IGnet enhanced Bodak and expanded its business by developing corporate insurance solution services such as 'ClockPass' and 'MyRealPlan.'

Customers often doubt whether companies like IGnet truly recommend products that are advantageous to them. This is because some GA-affiliated agents tend to recommend products with higher sales commissions from insurance companies. CEO Kim explained, "We care more about how long customers maintain their contracts than about commissions," adding, "To increase retention rates, we naturally have to recommend products that offer the best coverage for the price." As of last year, IGnet's incomplete sales ratio was 0%, and the 25-month contract retention rate was 95%.

Kim Ji-tae, CEO of iGnet, is being interviewed by Asia Economy. iGnet

The insurance industry is currently experiencing stagnation due to low birth rates and aging populations. Nevertheless, CEO Kim expects insurtech to grow rapidly. He said, "Even though traditional banking showed little growth potential, internet-only banks have recently grown rapidly," and added, "Insurtech is a subfield of fintech (finance + technology), but the global investment amounts in both fields have nearly equalized, showing rapid recent growth."

IGnet achieved sales of 23.3 billion KRW last year, a 79% increase compared to the previous year. Operating profit was 400 million KRW, and net profit was 200 million KRW, marking the company's first profitable year. About 90% of IGnet's sales come from its subsidiary GA, The Partners. The Partners recruits customers and pays platform fees to IGnet to use its services. The more contracts The Partners secures and the higher the commission income from insurance companies, the better IGnet's performance. CEO Kim said, "The domestic insurance sales commission market is huge, approaching 15 to 20 trillion KRW annually," and added, "Within that market, we are growing fast enough to change the leading digits of our sales every year."

CEO Kim plans to further advance AI this year. He said, "Creating AI agents and AI insurance planners is a major direction for this year," adding, "We are currently at a meaningful development stage using large language models (LLM) with our existing consultation and diagnosis data, and we plan to gradually release it."

To diversify the business, IGnet also plans to expand into the healthcare sector. CEO Kim said, "We are planning a service that evaluates disease risks and provides solutions using customers' health checkup data," and added, "We view insurance not as finance but as healthcare."

IGnet is also pushing for entry into Vietnam within the year. They plan to establish a joint venture (JV) with Medici, the leading insurtech company in Vietnam, to formalize the business. CEO Kim said, "We plan to complete the corporation establishment within the year with a structure where we hold a larger share of the JV," and expressed expectations, "We will create synergy by adding our technological capabilities to Medici's core business."