[KUALA LUMPUR] Bjak, Malaysia’s largest online insurance aggregator, is mulling an initial public offering (IPO) within the next two years as it seeks to enter Europe.
Bjak is eyeing new markets in Spain and Germany in 2026, following its recent expansion in Japan, Taiwan and Thailand, Low Wei, the firm’s founder, said.
The firm’s gross written premiums increased 20 to 30 per cent this year and are set to grow at a faster pace in the future as Bjak expands into new markets, the 36-year-old said. The business has been profitable since its inception in 2019 and has “very minimal” debt, he said, declining to disclose further financial details.
“We are still very young as a company,” Low said. “If you look at our other peers in other markets that are large, in China or the UK, it takes about 20 years to really maximise the potential or increase the penetration.”
The IPO will help fund further overseas expansion and provide employees with liquidity through stock grants. Bjak is shifting its focus to Spain and Germany, which have well-established auto insurance markets, Low added.
Low plans to double his team across the world by the end of 2026 from almost 200 people currently.
The success of Ant Group, the operator of China’s ubiquitous financial services app Alipay, inspired Low to start Bjak in 2019. While insurance technology is well established in markets such as the UK, it is at different stages of maturity across Asia, he said.
Bjak has seven million users and 16 insurance brands, including Germany’s Allianz and Japan’s Tokio Marine, on its platform.
Low’s entrepreneurial journey began at age 20 when his family’s financial woes forced him to drop out of a pre-university programme. Before founding Bjak, he was involved in aluminium trading and two other e-commerce ventures that stalled.
He cited that Warren Buffett as his idol and has read all of Berkshire Hathaway’s annual letters the billionaire investor has written since 1965. Like Buffett, Low wants to embrace a business philosophy focused on more than just monetary success.
“He has this quote that he emphasised a lot that I practice: You find out who your role models are and copy them,” he added. BLOOMBERG
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