NEW YORK (October 4. 2022) — Arbol Inc. (Arbol), a global climate risk solutions platform, today announced the hiring of Jeffrey Khoo as part of the company’s expansion strategy into APAC. Mr. Khoo will serve as Arbol’s Vice Chairman, APAC. He most recently served as Chief Marketing Officer at ED Broking and before that served as Head of Food and Agriculture Sales, Asia at Swiss Re Corporate Solutions. He brings to Arbol decades of experience across the agriculture and insurance sectors and will help oversee the launch of the company’s APAC operations this fall in Singapore.
“Jeffrey is a respected and influential leader in the agricultural space who brings to Arbol decades of invaluable experience in key sectors where we have positioned ourselves as a global leader in parametric climate solutions,” said Sid Jha, Founder and CEO, Arbol. “Arbol is well positioned to fill a gap in the market for customizable, data-driven climate risk solutions and parametric insurance across APAC and we are excited about the potential for working with companies in the region.”
“I am excited to join Arbol and help make the company a leader in parametrics and climate risk solutions across APAC,” said Jeffrey Khoo. “APAC needs data-driven, parametric climate risk solutions to help address the sizable coverage gap that exists for climate and weather related events. Arbol has all of the tools to address this global coverage gap, and bring solutions to APAC that enable long-term financial resilience for impacted businesses.”
Mr. Khoo previously held senior positions at various firms including a stint as General Manager of a SGX mainboard listed Guangzhao IFB, Agribusiness Director of private equity firm Caudex Asia and Deputy CEO of Green Agritech International. He currently serves as the Food and Beverage Chairperson at the National University of Singapore Society (NUSS) and was previously their Honorary Treasurer.
He is a respected thought leader in the agricultural sector, delivering keynote speeches at the World Agriculture Forum, Aginvest Asia, Responsible Business Forum, International Rice Conference, Future of Food Conference, among others.
In 2021, Mr. Khoo was recognized with the 2021 Imergey Luminaries Awards APAC, which honors professionals in a variety of industries and regions who are building communities, followership and starting thoughtful conversations.
Arbol is well positioned for an expansion into APAC. The Arbol platform transacted $100 million gross written premium (GWP) in the first half of this year, outpacing all GWP written in 2021. The majority of the platform’s growth has come from parametric programs in the agriculture and energy sectors, with ongoing expansion into the leisure/travel and climate risk sectors. Arbol recently announced a partnership with SingLife with Aviva to offer the first parametric rainfall cover for travelers.
Arbol is a global climate risk coverage platform and FinTech company offering full-service solutions for any business looking to analyze, manage and transfer climate risk. Arbol’s products offer parametric coverage which pays out based on objective data triggers rather than subjective assessment of loss.
Arbol’s key differentiator versus traditional InsurTech or climate analytics platforms is the complete ecosystem it has built to address climate risk. This ecosystem includes a massive climate data infrastructure, scalable product development, automated, instant pricing using an artificial intelligence underwriter, blockchain-powered operational efficiencies, and non-traditional risk capacity bringing capital from non-insurance sources. By combining all these factors, Arbol brings scale, transparency, and efficiency to parametric coverage in stark contrast to the oligopoly of reinsurers that currently dominate the climate risk insurance space.
