A Series of Fortunate Events

ConneXionsAsia (CXA), a Singapore-based technology company offering Asia's first insurance and wellness marketplace, has closed its Series A venture funding, successfully raising US$8 million.

"CXA aims to be a disruptive force across Asia by repurposing insurance and treatment spend into workplace wellness and prevention," asserts Founder and CEO Rosaline Koo. "Employees will now be able to customise their benefits and wellness package to their personal needs."

Rosaline also advises, "For start-ups, it is important to partner a bank that has a suite of services and track record to support you through the various stages of your business, including an initial public offering or acquisition. With DBS BusinessClass, DBS has demonstrated its commitment and ability to be a one-stop-shop for start-ups."​

In 2013, Rosaline Koo, fresh from a stellar 8-year stint with employee benefits broker Mercer - where she grew the business from US$11 million to US$88 million in annual sales - launched her third startup, CXA, with a vision of helping companies unlock wellness in the workplace at no additional cost to employers, simply by shifting existing corporate healthcare expenditure from treatment to prevention.

A year later, in early 2014, the Los Angeles-bred, tough-as-nails serial entrepreneur took a leap of faith - along with US$4 million of her family's savings and debt financing from DBS Bank - and acquired the Pan Group, Singapore's largest home-grown employee benefits brokerage.

Her acquisition paid off. Since March 2014, CXA has won 20 new Fortune 500 corporate clients, including the largest global technology marquee firms. It also garnered the attention of NSI Ventures - the venture capital wing of private equity firm Northstar - which led the US$8 million Series A investment, alongside consumer and technology fund F&H and healthcare fund BioVeda.

These notable investors were won over by CXA's rapid growth of Asia's first insurance wellness exchange, its highly experienced management team and impressive customer base of over 500 corporate clients.

"The CXA Model is a game changer for employee benefits in Asia," affirms Ashish Shastry, Managing Partner of Northstar Group and CEO of Northstar Advisors - who will join the board of CXA as part of the deal. "This paper based industry is ripe for disruption and we believe that CXA has an advantage over the competition."

Koo intends to channel proceeds from the Series A round into supporting CXA's local and international growth - which includes opening its Hong Kong brokerage and technology investment to scale the platform for bank and insurance distributors across Asia. She also intends to grow a leading pool of talent in insurance and healthcare big data technology.

CXA also plans to expand to 12 countries across Asia including China, key ASEAN countries, as well as Japan, Korea and India.

"Employers will get the tools and data they need to improve their workforce health, cap premium increases and reduce their workload burden through automation of administrative processes and vendor consolidation," assures Rosaline Koo, " all without spending more."