Kakao Pay takes over insurance platform Inbyu

By Kim Bo-eun

Kakao Pay has acquired insurance platform startup Inbyu, in a strategic move to enter the insurance business.

The mobile payment services unit of IT giant Kakao said Wednesday that it acquired Inbyu's shares and attained management rights of the company.

Inbyu will act as a general agency for Kakao Pay's insurance services.

"We are happy to be able to take on the challenge of creating new insurance services based on IT technology, with a startup such as Inbyu that has great ideas and potential," Kakao Pay said in a statement.

"We will provide services in the insurance sector that remove inconveniences for users and cover for various risk factors."

Kakao Pay plans to offer innovative insurance products through the platform, focusing on essential coverage consumers seek.

Inbyu was established in 2017 as a technology-based insurance service platform. The startup was the first to create a platform for insurance services, eliminating existing complex registration processes for policies. It sells various insurance policies, in partnership with major local and global insurers as well as reinsurers. These are mostly simple policies such as travelers' insurance.

Inbyu established a partnership with Kakao Pay in January, through which it has enabled Kakao Pay users to select travelers' insurance based on the price and coverage information provided by Inbyu. Kakao Pay decided to acquire Inbyu to create greater synergy.

The takeover came after Kakao Pay first expressed its intention to enter the insurance industry in May.

Kakao Pay was launched in April 2017 with payment and money transfer services and is seeking in the long term to set up a comprehensive finance platform.

In February 2017, it received $200 million in investment from Ant Financial, an affiliate of China's Alibaba Group with which it established a partnership.