One of the biggest Saudi insurers, Tawuniya, has signed several new agreements at a FinTech event in Riyadh, with the insurer looking to make more investments.
The company was investing “left, right, and centre, within a given strategy that can mainly complement what it wants to achieve, Mr Othman Al-Kassabi, Tawuniya CEO, told Arab News on the sidelines of the FinTech 24 Conference which commenced on 3 September.
Mr Al-Kassabi said, “We are an insurance company that has plans to penetrate the digital era.”
He added: “You cannot ignore today that technology is enabling the markets to achieve.” He said, “Today, the market size is around SAR65bn ($17.3bn), and 16% of these transactions happen on digital platforms.”
Among the companies that Tawuniya signed agreements with recently and at the conference are Hakbah, a Saudi-based FinTech savings platform; Abyan, a robo-advisory company, and Syarah, an online car e-commerce platform.
Tawuniya seeks collaboration in digital arena
Despite already having inked around 15 deals, Mr Al-Kassabi made clear that his company was interested in further collaborations. “Our scouting team now, and our business development and digital sectors, are available here looking for ideas that can complement us,” he said.
One of Tawuniya’s key initiatives involves adopting a data strategy to better understand customer behaviour, and customise products to create “customer stickiness”, he added. For instance, in the comprehensive motor insurance branch, Tawuniya uses telematics to monitor driving behaviour, rewarding people based on their performance.
Tawuniya recently launched Tree, a fully digital insurance company in Saudi Arabia. “Tree is an insurance company that’s fully owned by Tawuniya and can penetrate the insurance market from a direction that was not approached before,” said Mr Al-Kassabi.
Tree is pioneering new products, including pet insurance, which Mr Al-Kassabi believes will be a game-changer in the market.
Looking ahead
Tawuniya’s strategy is to diversify its revenue streams, with a significant portion of profitability expected to come from non-core insurance activities. “We’re going into healthcare, we’re going into the spare parts market. We’re going into car maintenance, car washing, financing, and financial investments through our life insurance,” Mr Al-Kassabi revealed.
On 15 August 2024, Fitch Ratings revised Tawuniya’s outlook to ‘Positive’ from ‘Stable’ and affirmed the company’s Insurer Financial Strength (IFS) Rating at 'A' (Strong). Fitch said that the revision of the outlook reflects Tawuniya's improving financial performance driven by strong profitable growth and prudent underwriting standards which, if sustained over the next 12 to 24 months, could lead to an improvement in the credit rating agency’s assessment of Tawuniya's financial performance and earnings.