Has Phonepe become India’s fastest-growing insure-tech distributor in India? Well, this is what the Flipkart owned digital payment platform has claimed. The digital payment major, which competes with Google Pay, Amazon Pay & Paytm, said on Wednesday that it has sold 5 lakh insurance policies on its platform. These 5 lakh insurance policies have been sold within just 9 months of the Insurance category going live on the PhonePe app.
The company has claimed that the major chunk of insurance purchasers on its platform hail from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Nashik, Vijayawada and Aurangabad were among the tier 2 and tier 3 cities that contributed immensely to the sales, the company claimed.
Phonepe was recently in news for launching insurance policies for COVID-19 in April & May when the pandemic was growing at a rapid pace all across the entire world. In fact, the digital payment major has been trying to grow its insurance portfolio consistently. It lately launched new products like Domestic Travel Insurance, Hospital Daily Cash, Dengue & Malaria Insurance, Personal Accident Cover and International Travel Insurance.
To enable the sale of these products, Phonepe has partnered with leading insurance companies like ICICI Lombard and Bajaj Allianz.
Commenting on the achievement, Hemant Gala, VP Financial Services & Payments, PhonePe said, “We are delighted to have achieved the 5 lakh insurance policies sold milestone on PhonePe within a short span of 5 months. This is by far the fastest scale-up seen in the insurtech industry.”
Phonepe is not the only digital payment player that is investing significant financial resources in the insurance sector. Amazon Pay and Paytm have already taken significant strides in the insurance space. Amazon Pay, which recently joined hands with Acko insurance, has reportedly applied for a brokerage license.
As for Paytm, the Noida headquartered company is currently waiting for IRDAI’s approval of its latest acquisition of Raheja QBE. IRDAI’s approval will make Paytm into a full-fledge insurance player, moving beyond being a mere insurance aggregator and broker.
Off late Insurance tech sector has seen a surge in activities, especially with Acko insurance raising $60 Mn in latest funding round led by Munich Re Ventures. Munich Re is a German insurance giant and its investment in a way validates the immense growth potential of India’s online insurance market.