AXA XL backs app-based art and collectibles cover in Singapore | Insurance Business
AXA XL backs app-based art and collectibles cover in Singapore
Collectors in Singapore can now buy instant all-risk cover through KoverNow’s app, with AXA XL providing the capacity
INSURANCE NEWSByCamille Joyce Lisay
Specialist cover for art, wine and collectibles has usually involved schedules, valuations and an underwriter’s sign-off. In Singapore it now takes a smartphone.
KoverNow, a digital insurance intermediary for high-value items, has added fine art, wine, whisky and collectibles to its app-based product range, under Collectors can get instant quotes and buy all-risk policies covering loss, theft and accidental damage worldwide. KoverNow says it has built end-to-end digital processes for each line that remove the lengthy underwriting traditionally required for these items
The scope reaches well past paintings. Art cover extends to sculpture and antiques, while collectibles include professionally graded trading cards and sports and film memorabilia.
That matters for how the collector market has usually been insured. New collectors in Asia have typically started with lower-cost named-peril policies before moving to broader cover. KoverNow is offering all-risk protection from the first purchase.
KoverNow chief executive Stephan Kaiser (pictured) framed the move around how collectors already buy. “Collectors already buy and trade their collections digitally, from graded trading cards acquired on online marketplaces to art bought through the e-commerce platforms of auction houses,” he said. “Insurance has been the one analogue step left in that process, standing between collectors and specialised protection for their passions.”
AXA XL is backing the model with its specialist capacity. Rhiannon Alban-Davies, underwriting manager for Fine Art & Specie, Asia, at AXA XL, said collectors expect specialist protection “to be just as straightforward and accessible” as the way they now build their collections. She said the partnership combines KoverNow’s digital platform with “AXA XL’s specialist Fine Art & Specie expertise and capacity”.
The tie-up began in January 2026 with digital cover for watches, jewellery and handbags. KoverNow now plans to take the partnership to Hong Kong with the same range of categories.
Distribution is the part brokers will notice. KoverNow works with luxury retailers, financial institutions and auction houses to offer cover at the point of sale, and relies on its own proprietary model to establish authenticity and valuation. For brokers handling private clients in Singapore, and soon Hong Kong, the first specialist policy a collector buys may now come through an app at the till. When those clients bring a growing collection to a broker, the term to test first is valuation: KoverNow quotes on market value drawn from its own pricing data.
