In 2024, insurtech funding in Asia-Pacific (APAC) experienced a significant decline, dropping 61% to $193m from $495m in 2023, according to the Tracxn Geo Annual Report: SEA InsurTech 2024. This significant decrease is attributed to a wider global funding downturn influenced by macroeconomic uncertainties, inflation, and elevated interest rates. Seed-stage funding also decreased by 16% to $7.7m, while early-stage investments plunged over 80% to $38.5m in the same year.

Interestingly, late-stage funding saw an increase of 11% to $147m, with the second half of 2024 being the most active funding period, amassing $111m. Despite this, the amount is still 50% lower than the same period in 2023. The highest funding activity of the year was recorded in the fourth quarter, with a total of $105m secured. Despite these downturns, Singapore maintained its position as a global tech hub, ranking fourth in FinTech funding, trailing the US, UK, and India.

Meanwhile, Mastercard has launched TRACE (Trace Financial Crime), an AI-powered solution to detect and prevent money laundering in the Asia-Pacific region. TRACE operates by analyzing payment data across multiple financial institutions, providing a comprehensive view of financial crime beyond the individual silos of banks. The solution addresses the challenges posed by the rise of real-time payments (RTPs), which, while enabling near-instant transactions, also present opportunities for criminals to swiftly move illicit funds across accounts. The first Asia-Pacific rollout of TRACE is in the Philippines, in partnership with BancNet, the switch operator of RTP service InstaPay.

In other tech news, East Ventures, a leading venture capital company, has launched Indo Build AI, an artificial intelligence platform in Indonesia. The platform aims to foster knowledge exchange among AI innovators through a series of activities culminating in a Demo Day. The launch of Indo Build AI demonstrates East Ventures’ commitment to establishing an AI ecosystem in Indonesia. Activities include a workshop featuring AI experts from AWS, Alibaba Cloud, and Google, focusing on AI applications in startups and new AI adoption methods.

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