Looking to tap into the potentially very large but underpenetrated market for wellness solutions that can supplement and strengthen insurance offerings, a Hong Kong startup now has plans to push into Southeast Asia.
Digital health insurtech MixCare plans to expand its data-driven preventive wellness platform across SEA’s high-growth Asian markets over the next two to three years, with Thailand slated for 2024, according to co-founder and CEO Alex Wong.
Through its software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform, MixCare has built an ecosystem of over 4,000 individual health and wellness services catering to 25 major corporate buyers and insurers in Hong Kong.
The insurtech company provides white-label customisable SaaS solutions that allow insurers and employers to promote health and wellness services to their customers and employees.
MixCare aims to capture US$1bn of the estimated US$300bn of wellness solutions in Asia by bringing cost-efficient programs to insurers and employers.
MixCare’s platform connects customers and employees to a diverse range of vendor partners, including practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine, general practitioners, acupuncturists, and beauty practitioners.
It also allows insurers and employers to create programs based on certain gamified health metrics, with rewards based on how many steps users have walked per day, or the distance a person has cycled or run.
The company’s clients already include insurers such as China Life, AXA, OneDegree, and Blue, brokers like Mercer and Pacific Prime, as well as employers such as auditing firm PwC and leading telecom company HKBN. MixCare’s end-user base now exceeds 100,000 in its domestic market of Hong Kong, the insurtech said.
Next stop Thailand
The Hong Kong-based startup plans to expand into Thailand with a soft launch in Q2, with a rollout of its data-driven health and wellness platform. The platform will provide access to over 3,000 wellness services targeted at the country’s rapidly expanding middle-income consumer segment, the insurtech said.
“Thailand has a very strong wellness market with a very strong middle class,” Wong told (Re)in Asia. “We have a successful case in Hong Kong and insurers would like to leverage that proven success and apply it in emerging markets.”
MixCare, which bills itself as one of the fastest-growing digital health and wellness platforms, is now going through a pre-Series A funding round.
For an early-stage insurtech company like MixCare, Thailand represents a sizable growth opportunity.
“I think the Thailand market is big enough to have some new market entrants,” Wong says. “We still haven’t seen any dominant player which has really captured a major market share in Thailand.”
MixCare is planning to onboard an insurer in Thailand by Q2, he adds.
MixCare is there for preventive care
As insurers work to plug a gap in their health and life insurance offerings with preventive care and digital wellness services, MixCare wants to enable the cost-efficient development and launch of these new products.
To that end, MixCare has worked to set itself apart with its speed to market and how it has helped streamline the customer journey, Wong said.
“Mid-sized insurers are working to seek more cost-effective digital health solutions. MixCare’s platform allows them to bring these products to market in a much more efficient manner,” he added.
Customer support for preventive care and wellness programs across Asia tends to be fairly limited, excluding critical components like integrated booking systems and payment gateways. And this is where MixCare comes in.
Alex Wong
CEO at MixCareCompared to providers like AIA Vitality, MixCare has deep local expertise, the insurtech says. The company tailors its services and solutions to the unique needs of group insurance buyers and their employees.
“There’s much more variety to the services we provide,” said Wong. “Usually, we see maybe hundreds of choices (from our competitors), but MixCare is offering more than 4,000 services on our platform.”
As job markets evolve and employers recalibrate benefit schemes to attract and retain talent, MixCare continues to expand its portfolio of wellness options.
More than three-quarters of major corporate employers have already invested in health and wellness initiatives following the pandemic’s disruption to traditional insurance models. Employers now recognize the need to formulate better benefits in step with changing workplace demands and expectations, Wong said.
A core specialty of MixCare is digital mental health support, according to Wong.
“Our mental health services are on demand as opposed to traditional Employee Assistance Plan (EAP) offerings, so we can be more efficient,” he added.
MixCare’s platform also ensures privacy protection for employees. Traditional EAP models often require employees to approach HR departments before accessing counselling or mental health services, Wong said. MixCare’s insurtech platform enables employees to simply select the service and use pre-assigned health credits or, to avoid being tracked, can sign up for services anonymously using a unique promo code.
“Unlike traditional counselling services offered under EAP (programmes), our digital platform provides access to a diverse array of mental health offerings,” Wong said. They range from divorce therapy and meditations to life coaching and sound therapy with singing bowls.
MixCare’s corporate clients have signalled their intent to invest more in preventive healthcare offerings such as checkup plans and vaccinations for workforces, Wong added.
“Employers want to adopt more proactive protection of their employees,” he said. “The pandemic shifted perspectives. We see people willing to have vaccinations and protect themselves. I think the mentality has changed, and people care more about preventive care.”
Is competition falling short?
Despite moves to provide policyholders with health and wellness value-adds, many insurers still retain legacy backend systems that inhibit the digital transformation of the customer journey, Wong said.
“A lot of insurers are still focusing on the traditional agency and distribution side. I think some of the insurers have overlooked how investing in health and wellness services can help drive loyalty and eventually reduce claim ratios and improve the bottom line.”
Moving into preventive healthcare does seem like a no-brainer. But many insurers approach these services as short-term campaigns rather than long-term strategies, Wong said.
As clients lead healthier lifestyles through preventive programs and consequently fall ill less frequently, insurers stop spending as much on claims to enhance profit. “In my experience, to build these health and wellness ecosystems is not a one-time thing — it has to be a long-term strategy,” Wong explained. “You need to track the data and you need to track the success or failure.”
Wong sees opportunities for the industry to leverage health and wellness solutions to deepen customer-agency engagement. MixCare has partnered with virtual life insurers to launch loyalty marketplaces featuring virtual health coins that customers can redeem for an array of wellness offerings.
“We can still see agents giving away mooncakes, red packets and calendars to retain clients. Instead of giving away all these physical (seasonal items), we have talked to a few big agency teams, and they have adopted our wellness services and portals. Individual clients and policyholders can pick and choose the wellness services based on their unique needs.”
Expansion plans
In addition to Thailand expansion plans, MixCare forecasts geographic expansion to Singapore, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia and South Korea within the next two to three years. The insurtech has already conducted some groundwork in Singapore.
Singapore offers a similar insurance environment to MixCare’s home base in Hong Kong in terms of maturity. “The challenge is the players, competition and the market size,” Wong said. “We do see some keen competition in the Singapore market, but it is a very strong regional hub.”
The company is also developing advanced AI capabilities through integration with generative AI tools. On the insurer side, MixCare aims to apply AI to automate the underwriting process and customise insurance products based on policyholders’ attributes.
Employers can also make use of MixCare’s data aggregation to optimise existing employee benefit schemes, paving a way for the development of targeted preventive wellness programs for each workforce segment.
The company has received a positive reception from investors, Wong said, underscoring MixCare’s scalable business operation and growth model. “We are very focused on the B2B side, and we have strong partnerships with brokers and insurers,” Wong added.
“The more we work with insurers, the more we show them how we can help close the gap in healthcare offerings, all while keeping quality high and costs way lower.”
