YAS MicroInsurance completes $4.5M Pre-Series A round led by Noria Capital, ZEMU VC and JKL Capital

YAS MicroInsurance (YAS), an insurance on-blockchain pioneer in Hong Kong, has announced the completion of their Pre-Series A funding round, raising $4.5 million.

The round was led by Noria Capital, ZEMU VC and JKL Capital, with participation from 500 Global, YAS said in a statement on Friday.

YAS plans to use the funds to expand and insure the Web3 economy.

According to the statement, the Web3 industry is one of the fastest growing sectors of the world’s economy, and out of a total of $1 trillion in Web3 assets, only $6 billion are insured today.

YAS said it aims to offer cross-dimensional insurance opportunities – insuring the Web3 economy and at the same time reinventing the traditional insurance value chain, using Web3 technologies.

It is a business model that’s highly focused on the actual customers’ needs, rather than completely speculative and outside of the regulatory framework, it added.

YAS said the Pre-Series A capital raise is a tremendous recognition of the vision of YAS, autonomous insurance and microinsurance on the blockchain.

It said the Middle East is one of the world’s leading hubs for blockchain adoption and represents an excellent opportunity for YAS.

It opined that the adoption is both a result of an internal drive by the city’s leadership and private sector, as well as the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a whole, to move towards transitioning its government services to a blockchain platform.

Meanwhile, a multitude of technological advances across the fields of artificial intelligence, web3, DeFi and the Internet of Things is shaping the future of society. These innovative technologies create unique risks while presenting unique opportunities for insurance innovators like YAS.

“We are on track with our goal to achieve our vision of how future insurance works – autonomous insurance on-chain, as we transition from the old web2 world into a more interconnected world, with web3,” said William Lee, Co-Founder of YAS.

YAS is an Asia-Pacific InsurTech company headquartered in Hong Kong with operations in Vietnam and Malaysia.

Applying blockchain and InsurTech, the firm has created a number of on-demand insurance trends in Asia, including insurance for hiking, cycling, transport, and the world’s first NFT insurance. 

YAS is committed to reshaping insurance for new generations through the use of technology.

As a venture capital fund specializing in bringing innovation to the insurance industry in the Middle East, Noria Capital will provide expertise in the region and support YAS in obtaining a digital asset insurance license in the Middle East, to capture opportunities in the region.

“Few companies are significantly transforming the insurance industry, YAS is one of them. We do believe that YAS is uniquely positioned to provide the next generation of microinsurance in Web3,

“William Lee, Andy Ann and Kelvin Cheung are the perfect team to lead YAS on this progressive journey of innovation and creativity. As an
insurtech fund, we always look for companies to reinvent the insurance value chain,” said Rakan Abunayyan, General Partner at Noria Capital.

Noria Capital is a United Kingdom-based venture capital fund focused on Insurtech. The fund invests in startups around series A and supports its portfolio companies in their growth journey into the Middle East and Africa.

The fund provides its investors with a deep insight into the capabilities of the current and future technologies in the insurance industry. It has offices in Dubai, Riyadh as well in London.

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