Rosaline Chow Koo, CXA Group Founder and CEO “Viewpoint”
Share
HARNESSING THE ASIAN ADVANTAGE
Being in Asia means standing at the center of rapid and frequent tech-driven innovations — a powerful environment that CXA uses to propel its growth
Rosaline Chow Koo
CXA Group Founder and CEO
I came to Asia in 1996 — quite accidentally — from the U.S., and I never looked back,” says Ms. Rosaline Chow Koo, founder and CEO of CXA Group, a B2B2C insurance and health technology company that is pioneering the use of AI innovations. Since then, she has worked across the continent, for both MNCs and her own startups. “I always knew that Asia will remain the place to be.”
Ms. Chow Koo lauds the convergence of global talents, the support for emerging enterprises from various governments, and the opportunities from economies that are opening up throughout the continent. “For CXA, being in Asia allowed us to expand very quickly with a lean team. We were able to expand from our base in Singapore to the key cities of Hong Kong, Beijing, Shanghai, Jakarta, Ho Chi Minh City and Kuala Lumpur, and service clients in 20 countries across Asia, mostly within our first two years.” CXA has since used its base across Asia to leapfrog into the West.
CXA’s AI-driven Health Ecosystem was built brick by brick in one city after another. By consolidating clinics, hospitals, GPs, specialists, health screeners, disease management,pharmacies, insurers and more, and making the system available directly to banks, insurers, telcos and HR firms, CXA is able to remove the middlemen. And by doing it all digitally, it save clients 15 to 25 percent of the costs.
“Being a startup, we get headwinds every hour, every day; we have to work much harder to tackle daily management issues along with survival issues,” Ms. Chow Koo says. She advises startup owners to be resilient. “There is so much at stake, so many livelihoods that you are responsible for.” Another thing that keeps her going is the excitement and the adrenaline rush that comes when all the dots are connected and everything falls into place.
“If I were to pick one quality of a business leader in the digital age, it would be the ability to see the future ahead of everyone else, and somehow be able to channel all you got, rally the people behind you, and get there first. This is especially true for a tech startup, and this is the only way you can survive.”
