InsurTech Startup Turtlemint Files Confidential IPO Papers with Sebi, Eyes Main-Board Listing

Turtlemint Fintech Solutions Ltd, an insurtech company, has filed papers with markets regulator Sebi for its proposed initial public offering (IPO) using the confidential pre-filing route.

In a public announcement, the Mumbai-based insurance advisor-focused startup, said it has filed "the pre-filed draft red herring prospectus with Sebi and the stock exchanges...in relation to the proposed initial public offering of its equity shares on the main-board of the stock exchanges".

To assist the public offering, the company has roped in ICICI Securities, Jefferies India, JM Financial and Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors as the lead merchant bankers, according to market sources.

Founded in 2015 by Dhirendra Mahyavanshi and Anand Prabhudesai, Turtlemint is designed to simplify the purchase and management of insurance policies. The firm has sold 1.6 crore policies through its network of over five lakh advisers.

The platform helps financial advisors instantly match each customer with a suite of products best suited for their unique needs, through a digital solution, thereby making advisors & their business efficient.

Turtlemint is backed by Amansa Capital, Jungle Ventures, and Nexus Venture Partners.

ForaySoft and ES Search Develop Insurance-Specific Automation Tools for Claims and Risk Operations

Hyderabad headquartered ForaySoft, a global consulting and systems integration firm, has announced a joint development initiative with US based ES Search Consultants to deliver modular technology components for insurers.

Built to integrate into insurers’ existing stacks, the solutions include:

• Automation modules for intake and triage in claims workflows
• Pre-built risk scoring engines using structured and behavioral data
• Fraud pattern tracking tools designed for integration with SIU workflows

“Together we are developing and delivering AI driven insurance tech tools that can be embedded directly into carriers’ operational systems,” said Mrudula Munagala, President at ES Search Consultants. “These aren’t abstract platforms, they are task-specific utilities designed with underwriters, adjusters, and fraud teams in mind. Through our solutions insurers gain greater efficiency, agility, and customer trust, delivering outcomes that matter in a competitive market." Mrudula adds.

“This move aligns with ForaySoft’s vision of combining deep domain expertise with next-gen AI innovation to serve sectors that are ripe for transformation. We plan to expand our AI Center of Excellence and roll out pilot programs with key insurance clients across India, the US, and the Middle East in 2025.” said, Vasu Babu Vajja, Managing Director of ForaySoft.

ForaySoft, with over 40 experts currently in place, plans are afoot to hire 100 more across engineering and delivery teams.

The company plans to expand its AI Center of Excellence in Hyderabad and roll out pilot programs with key insurance clients across India, the US, and the Middle East in FY 2025-26.

According to a McKinsey Report - Insurers that are AI leaders are already outshining their peers. Reportedly, over the past five years, the insurance sector’s AI leaders have created 6.1 times the Total Shareholder Returns (TSR) of AI laggards (compared with two to three times in most other sectors).

About ForaySoft: Hyderabad based, ForaySoft Founded in 2011 Founded in 2011, is a global technology and consulting firm with over 300 projects delivered across 6 countries. Backed by 3,000+ professionals and 50+ developer teams, the firm helps enterprises modernize operations and implement scalable, industry-specific solutions.

ICICI Lombard Becomes One of The 1st Indian Insurer with Fully Automated AWS Multi-Region DR, Enabled by TCS

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS) a global leader in IT services, consulting, and business solutions, has successfully enabled ICICI Lombard to achieve fully automated AWS multi-region Disaster Recovery (DR) switchover. This establishes ICICI Lombard as one of the first insurance companies in India to achieve fully automated multi-region resilience on the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Cloud.

The innovative DR solution—designed to ensure business continuity in the face of unexpected disruptions—leverages automation-first, infrastructure-as-code approach. It leverages AWS-native technologies to enable intelligent, automated failover for key systems with minimal downtime or manual effort. With TCS as its growth partner, ICICI Lombard has been operating on AWS Cloud since 2021. To strengthen business continuity and achieve geographical redundancy, TCS helped the insurer establish a robust, scalable and fully automated DR setup.

Girish Nayak, Chief – Technology and Health (Underwriting & Claims), ICICI Lombard, said, “With resilience at the core of our digital operating model, and TCS as our strategic technology partner, we’ve been able to transform our disaster recovery capabilities into a truly agile, automated and cloud-native setup. This not only enhances our readiness for unexpected infrastructure disruptions but also reinforces our commitment to uninterrupted service to our customers. I would like to thank and congratulate TCS for enabling this automated disaster recovery solution by leveraging their cloud expertise in the insurance domain.”

TCS brought on board its deep domain expertise in the insurance industry and used its contextual knowledge of ICICI Lombard’s systems to deliver a best-in-class DR solution. The automation solution was built using highly performant data driven serverless architecture designed for large scale orchestration. This implementation not only improves operational resilience and reduces recovery time but also sets a new industry benchmark for automated disaster recovery in the BFSI sector.

Ujjwal Mathur, President & Country Head – India Business, TCS, said, “This engagement highlights our commitment to helping clients achieve next-generation resilience through cloud-native innovation. This intelligent, automation-led DR solution sets a new benchmark for BFSI organizations by enabling seamless, fast and scalable disaster recovery with zero touch. We are proud to partner with ICICI Lombard to reimagine infrastructure resilience in this digital era.”

TCS has been ICICI Lombard’s strategic IT partner since 2006 and has been managing their datacenter operations since 2013. TCS has been instrumental in seamlessly migrating all the ICICI Lombard applications to public cloud in 2021 and has since been supporting the ICICI Lombard cloud environment. It is now modernizing the insurer’s systems – Project Orion – with TCS BaNCS™ Insurance being deployed as part of the program. TCS is a leading player in the BFSI sector, partnering with top banks, leading insurance firms, prominent capital market entities, major investment banks, and wealth management companies globally.

TCS BaNCS™ for Insurance is a comprehensive offering suite, supporting a range of insurance products and functions, including customer management, product definition, plan management, policy administration, claims management, insurance accounting and reinsurance, along with a digital suite that can be tailored based on persona, among several options

Mphasis Announces Strategic Partnership with Sixfold to Strengthen Insurance Underwriting Capabilities

Mphasis, (BSE: 526299; NSE: MPHASIS), an Information Technology (IT) solutions provider specializing in cloud and cognitive services, today announced a strategic partnership with Sixfold, the US and UK-based AI underwriting company redefining how insurers assess risk.

As an implementation partner, Mphasis will integrate Sixfold’s AI platform to help insurers accelerate their underwriting process—speeding up submission intake and equipping underwriters with the contextual risk insights they need to make faster, more confident decisions. Designed for Life & Disability, Commercial P&C & Specialty, and Reinsurance, Sixfold reduces review times by more than half and increases Gross Written Premium (GWP) per underwriter by enabling smarter, faster risk selection —without sacrificing accuracy.

Through this partnership, Mphasis aims to help streamline underwriting processes, enhance operational efficiency and drive intelligent decision-making using Sixfold’s advanced AI solutions. Already in production at market-leading carriers, Sixfold’s platform integrates seamlessly into existing workflows and quickly adapts to each insurer’s unique risk appetite—delivering tailored recommendations that align with the insurer’s underwriting guidelines.

“Mphasis is excited to partner with Sixfold to accelerate AI adoption in the insurance industry. By leveraging Sixfold’s AI expertise in combination with expertise from Mphasis.ai and our insurance technology capabilities, we are able to deliver advanced, data-driven automation solutions for global insurers, driving efficiency, accuracy, and innovation across the insurance value chain,” said Srikumar Ramanathan, Chief Solutions Officer, Mphasis.

“Sixfold was built to solve real problems for underwriters—and to make the entire process better for brokers and customers,” said Alex Schmelkin, Founder & CEO of Sixfold. “That means making implementation simple and fast. Mphasis has a great track record of getting technology live inside real-world insurance workflows. With them, insurers can move quickly, see impact fast, and do it all without adding extra work to their teams. That’s a win for everyone involved.”

This partnership marks a significant step in the evolution of insurance underwriting, allowing insurers to navigate the future of risk assessments with greater speed and accuracy.

Capri Global Selects Girnar Finserv's InsurTech Platform, Heph, As Its Technology Partner

• Capri anticipates reduced policy issuance time by 80% with multi-insurer product comparison suiting their customer needs

Heph, India's largest Insurance SaaS Platform and a Girnar Finserv Entity has announced its partnership with Capri Global Capital Ltd known by the brand name Capri Loans, one of the leading NBFCs known for its innovative approach to lending and financial services in India. Capri has chosen Heph as its technology partner owing to its comprehensive white-label Insurance SaaS platform tailored to BFSI needs.

Through this collaboration, Capri Loans will seamlessly embed insurance products across its lending ecosystem, including the introduction of a Group Health Insurance product and other insurance product as per the customer requirements and choice. Having integrated Heph’s multi-insurer, multi-channel capabilities, Capri Global will offer customized third party insurance solutions directly within its loan products, driving a new revenue stream while enhancing customer value.

How Capri Loans Benefits from Heph’s Insurtech Solutions:

• Seamless White-Label Integration: Heph’s API-driven, fully customizable platform enables Capri Loans to embed insurance within its existing digital ecosystem to be obtained by customers at their option, ensuring a frictionless experience for customers and sales teams alike.
• Multi-Insurer, Multi-Channel Capability: Capri Loans can now offer a diverse range of insurance products, including custom-created products (Motor, Health, Life, Group), through various distribution channels including Assisted, D2C, and Embedded, enhancing cross-sell opportunities.
• Custom Workflows for Optimized Operations: The platform is tailored to Capri Loan’s operational needs, automating policy issuance, claims processing, and compliance workflows to ensure smooth execution at scale.
• Reduced Policy Issuance Time by 80%: Heph’s advanced automation tools drastically cut down processing time, enabling issuance of policies in minutes rather than days.
• Comprehensive Backend Management: The platform consolidates operations, including policy administration, invoice management, IRDAI compliance, and reporting, ensuring complete regulatory adherence.
• Enterprise-Grade Security: With SOC2 and ISO-certified security protocols, Capri Loans benefits from best-in- class data protection and encryption standards.

Ayush Bagmar, Business Head of Heph, said, “At Heph, we are reimagining the way insurance is distributed by enabling financial institutions to introduce the right insurance products to the right audience. Our partnership with Capri Global furthers this vision. By leveraging Heph’s white-label, full-stack platform, Capri Global can now scale its offerings and drive meaningful engagement through its platform”

Magesh Iyer, Chief Operating Officer at Capri Global Capital Ltd added, “Offering our customers a wide array of insurance solutions that fits their requirement is an important objective for us. We also understand that beyond offering the right solutions, the experience of the same has to be customer oriented. This partnership enables us to reimagine the entire customer journey. Heph’s platform, a one stop shop for all insurance needs will accelerate our growth and help us serve our customers better.”

With Heph as its insurtech partner, Capri Loans is set to unlock new growth opportunities, boost policy issuance speed, and drive significant revenue expansion through insurance cross-sell, potentially increasing revenue The partnership marks a pivotal step in digitizing insurance distribution in the BFSI sector, setting new benchmarks for operational excellence and customer-centric financial solutions.

Further AI Raises $5 Mn Led By Nexus Venture Partners

Led by Nexus Venture Partners, the new investment will help the AI company advance its commercial insurance AI, add more enterprise integrations, and grow its team.

FurtherAI, the company behind AI assistants that master complex insurance workflows, has raised $5 million in a seed round of funding led by Nexus Venture Partners (through their latest $700 million AI-dedicated fund), with participation from Pioneer AI Fund, South Park Commons, Y Combinator, ConvergeVC and strategic investors such as Xceedance, along with several insurtech angel investors. This brings the total funds raised by the company to over $5 million. FurtherAI is also expanding into the UK, where insurers are accelerating AI adoption to modernize underwriting, compliance, and claims processing.

The funding will be used by the tech firm to grow its AI team, drive strategic industry engagement, and expand and enhance the product’s capabilities.

Purpose-built for the insurance industry, FurtherAI’s AI automates complex document processing and integrates disjointed systems to revolutionize underwriting, compliance, and claims processing at scale. This investment marks a significant milestone as the company continues to drive efficiency and innovation in commercial insurance.

FurtherAI’s innovative technology is already trusted by leading insurers and carriers worldwide, with customers writing more than $15 billion in premiums.

Commercial insurers have long struggled with increasing expense ratios and loss ratios, and a shrinking talent pool. FurtherAI addresses these challenges with a platform that delivers superior accuracy, achieving 95-97% accuracy compared to 70-77% accuracy with manual processing. It also seamlessly integrates into existing systems. Key benefits include:

• Modular Adaptability: A “LEGO block” design that quickly adapts to current workflows.
• Enhanced Accuracy: Achieving 95-97% accuracy for reliable outcomes.
• Seamless Integration & Scalability: Designed to integrate with legacy systems and scale across diverse use cases – from underwriting to claims processing.

Aman Gour, co-founder and CEO of FurtherAI, said, “When we first partnered with the insurance industry, many claimed it was slow to innovate and held back by repetitive tasks. We saw it differently: insurance isn’t inherently sluggish or mundane—it just needed more advanced technology. Now, with large language models, we’re unlocking the industry’s true potential. I’m thrilled that top investors recognize this opportunity, enabling us to drive real change in the industry.”

Sashank Gondala, co-founder and CTO of FurtherAI, said, “We’ve seen a lot of untapped potential because traditional models don’t fully meet the unique needs of specialized insurance. At FurtherAI, we’re committed to building far better and more accurate solutions while upholding the strict privacy and compliance standards that the industry demands."

Commenting on the investment, Jishnu Bhattacharjee, Managing Director at Nexus Venture Partners said, “FurtherAI’s autonomous AI Agents are set to transform the commercial insurance industry: their solution’s accuracy and adaptability not only boost efficiency and competitiveness but also address what has been a long-enduring talent shortage in the industry. By automating tedious tasks, existing teams can focus on high-value, strategic work that not only eases the strain on current teams, but also makes the industry more appealing to the next generation of talent. We are thrilled to back Aman, Shashank and team as they bring advanced AI to change traditional industries for the better”.

FurtherAI’s technology is already making a big impact for many insurers and carriers in several key areas, including:

• A large managing general agent (MGA) handling over $1.5 billion in premiums doubled its underwriter productivity by streamlining submission processes.
• A risk exchange estimates doubling the number of policies audited while cutting compliance audit times by 20%+ in the first year.
• A regional insurer boosted its policy comparison process by over 95%, leading to quicker and more accurate insights.

About FurtherAI - FurtherAI is a San Francisco-based AI company transforming the insurance industry through intelligent automation. Its advanced AI solutions streamline complex workflows by processing vast amounts of insurance data, navigating internal systems, and automating critical tasks such as submission intake, policy comparison, loss runs processing, and underwriting audits. By reducing manual effort, FurtherAI empowers insurers and MGAs to improve accuracy, efficiency, and decision-making at scale. FurtherAI meets the highest security and compliance standards, including SOC 2, ISO 27001, and GDPR.

Founded by AI and insurance experts with backgrounds at Microsoft, Apple, and leading insurance companies and insurtech startups, FurtherAI combines deep technical innovation with real-world industry expertise. Co-Founders Aman Gour and Sashank Gondola bring extensive experience in AI-driven workflow automation, while insurance veteran Ben Grosser has built and scaled underwriting models for top insurance firms. Together, its team is building AI-powered teammates that help insurers eliminate operational bottlenecks, enhance risk assessment, and drive profitable growth. For more information, visit FurtherAI at https://www.furtherai.com

GenAI-powered HealthTech Startup Consint.AI Raises Rs 5 Cr in Seed Round Led by Equanimity Ventures & Seafund

• Consint.AI is a pioneering Generative AI-driven healthcare technology company dedicated to transforming healthcare transactions and drive personalized care.
• The Company has developed cutting-edge platforms like Risk.ai, engineered to optimize insurance transactions and mitigate fraud, waste & Abuse and CIPHR.ai, designed to enhance critical patient management and streamline claims generation for hospitals. These solutions are deployed across India, Middle East and Africa
• Funds raised will be deployed to scale operations through expanded sales outreach and accelerate the development of Generative AI Feature Suite for Health AI Platform
• The company has recently launched CIPHR.ai, an AI-driven platform tailored for hospitals, built upon custom Generative AI models to revolutionize care personalization in critical patient management. CIPHR.ai provides point-of-care intelligence to doctors and streamlines claims transactions, enhancing efficiency for healthcare providers.Consint.AI is focused on transforming the $600 billion healthcare transaction market by making claims transactions seamless and enabling value-based care. With a projected 4x YoY business growth, the company is strategically expanding its Risk.ai product across private and public insurance markets in the APAC and MEA regions.

GenAI driven healthcare Insurance fraud and risk management company Consint.AI has raised Rs 5 Cr in a seed round led by Equanimity Ventures and Seafund. The capital raised will be deployed to scale operations through expanded sales outreach and accelerate the development of Generative AI Feature Suite for Health AI Platform. This includes enhancing fraud detection, optimizing claims processing, and delivering personalized clinical care to drive innovation in healthcare. Funding raised in the current round will also support team expansion, infrastructure upgrades, and R&D efforts to strengthen its position as a leader in the health tech solutions market.

Commenting on the investment, Manoj Agarwal, Managing Partner, Seafund, says, “Our focus on emerging tech like GenAI, deep tech, IoT and sustainability has been the guiding force when it comes to backing unique and innovative startups. Consent.AI’s laser sharp focus on solving the problem of healthcare Insurance claims processing and fraud detection improving performance of Insurance and Healthcare institutions is a multi-billion dollar problem to solve and we believe that we have the necessary expertise and network to help the company grow and reach its ambitions.”

Founded in 2020 by Ashish Chaturvedi and later joined by Swadeep Singh as Co-Founder, Consint.AI is a pioneering Generative AI-driven healthcare fraud and risk management company dedicated to transforming healthcare transactions and personalized care. Consint cutting-edge platforms like Risk.ai, engineered to optimize insurance transactions and mitigate fraud, and CIPHR.ai which is designed to enhance critical patient management and streamline claims generation. By harnessing advanced Generative AI solutions, the company empowers businesses across emerging markets and the U.S. to drive value-based care, operational efficiency, and sustainable growth.

In the last 12 months, Consint.AI has achieved remarkable traction, expanding into India, the Middle East, and Africa. The company has recently launched CIPHR.ai, an AI-driven platform tailored for hospitals, built upon custom Generative AI models to revolutionize care personalization in critical patient management. CIPHR.ai provides intelligence at point of care and generates claims transactions enhancing efficiency for healthcare providers. Targeted at emerging health markets and the U.S. Accountable Care Organization (ACO) sector, this platform leverages Generative AI to address the evolving needs of modern healthcare systems.

In the last two quarters, the company has achieved significant growth, securing INR 10+ crore in signed contracts. This includes multiple multi-year agreements with leading insurance providers and hospital systems, highlighting strong market validation and growing demand for its innovative solutions, particularly in the areas of Generative AI and Document Forensics. These strategic partnerships underscore the company's commitment to delivering innovative solutions and solidifying its presence in emerging markets.

Ashish Chaturvedi, Founder and CEO, Consint, says, "This current market traction and milestones highlight the transformative potential of Generative AI in reshaping healthcare as we know it. At Consint, we are pioneering GenAI-driven platforms like CIPHR.ai and Risk.ai to solve complex challenges in healthcare transactions and personalized care. Our focus remains on advancing our Generative AI capabilities to drive innovation, deliver impactful solutions, and empower businesses globally to achieve seamless operations and value-based care. This funding accelerates our mission to lead the charge in AI-powered healthcare transformation."

Consint plans to continue expanding Risk.ai to drive seamless transactions in the emerging InsurTech markets, with a focus on product enhancements and accelerated sales efforts. Additionally, it aims to strategically penetrate the U.S. market by establishing a strong product-market fit for its CIPHR.ai Provider Platform, leveraging its Generative AI solutions to meet the specific needs of healthcare providers and Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs). These initiatives are geared towards solidifying the company’s presence in key markets and driving sustainable growth.

About Seafund

Seafund is a Category 2 Alternate Investment Fund (AIF) registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and is an early stage focused technology fund with Deeptech as one of its underlying themes. The fund provides Capital to mission-driven teams building Technologies of Tomorrow and brings its Commitment, Network and Experience to each of their investments. Their mission is to help the next set of founders, with early Venture Capital, to build highly scalable and efficient Global Businesses. Along with Fintech, Enterprise SaaS and Healthcare, the fund also focuses on AI, Semiconductors, Space, Robotics, Energy, Climate and Materials.

Seafund is run by a stellar founding team comprising of Manoj Kumar Agarwal, Mayuresh Raut and Narendra Bhandari as Partners. They bring rich experience in investing, building and selling technological products, Global GTM and a rich network of domain experts and business leaders. This core team has lived and breathed building businesses across multiple B2B environments. Seafund’s ecosystem of best-of-breed legal, accounting, IP consulting enables them to do faster due diligence, decision-making, and deal closure.

About Consint.AI

Consint.AI is a pioneering Generative AI-driven healthcare fraud and risk management technology company dedicated to transforming healthcare transactions and personalized care. With cutting-edge platforms like Risk.ai, engineered to optimize insurance transactions and mitigate fraud, and CIPHR.ai, designed to enhance critical patient management and streamline claims processing, Consint is leading the charge in tackling complex challenges within the $600 billion healthcare market. By harnessing advanced Generative AI solutions, the company empowers businesses across emerging markets and the U.S. to drive value-based care, operational efficiency, and sustainable growth.

Wipro Invests in US-based Insurtech Consulting Firm Aggne, Picked Up Majority Stakes

Wipro Limited, a leading technology services and consulting company, today announced that it has made a significant investment in Aggne, a leading consulting and managed services company serving insurance and Insurtech industries.

With this investment, Wipro becomes a majority shareholder in Aggne, which brings to Wipro a highly sought-after and unique set of capabilities and Intellectual Property (IP) in the property & casualty (P&C) insurance space. The combined capabilities of Wipro and Aggne will help deliver enhanced value, faster speed-to-market, and differentiated services to clients in the P&C sector.

“Aggne’s unique capabilities will allow us to significantly strengthen our value proposition in a fast-growing part of the insurance sector,” said Ritesh Talapatra, Senior Vice President, Capital Markets and Insurance, Americas 2 Strategic Market Unit, Wipro Limited. “The Aggne team has a deep and well-established experience in the P&C insurance space. Their unique IP and modular approach to implementations significantly accelerate time-to-market, driving faster business outcomes and better client satisfaction. This, combined with Wipro’s deep relationships and global scale, will help us drive significant synergies and uncover new growth opportunities.”

Aggne offers a wide range of services designed to help insurers transform operations, drive new efficiencies, and deliver optimal customer experiences. The company focuses on building industry-changing solutions for the P&C insurance industry, with a commitment to collaborating with clients as partners.

Aggne’s services include IP-led consulting, implementation, and managed services with a strong focus on the Duck Creek platform—a full suite of cloud-based, low-code products that enable P&C insurers to fast-track product development and drive ongoing innovation.

“We are thrilled to add Aggne’s unique capabilities to our portfolio,” said Harpreet Arora, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Banking, Financial Services and Insurance Domain & Consulting at Wipro Limited. “Their innovative, IP-driven consulting capabilities in the insurance space and premier partnership status on the Duck Creek platform stand out in the marketplace. Combined with our domain expertise, these capabilities will allow us to bring clients a truly end-to-end offering that will help them drive competitive advantage and customer loyalty.”

Mike Jackowski, Chief Executive Officer of Duck Creek Technologies, added, “We are excited about the partnership between Aggne and Wipro. Aggne's deep expertise and experience in implementing Duck Creek products, combined with Wipro's scale, insurance industry acumen, and global reach, will greatly benefit our customers. This investment by Wipro brings together the best in two leading firms and will help drive innovation to the insurance industry through the deployment of leading SaaS-based solutions.”

Aggne is a recognized leader and premier partner in the Duck Creek ecosystem. The company is the recipient of the Duck Creek Technologies 2023 Americas Value Creation Partner of the Year award.

“We are excited about the growth opportunities this new partnership creates for our company and our current and future clients,” said Asha Kalidindi, Co-Founder and CEO of Aggne. “Joining forces with Wipro will allow us to reach a larger and global set of clients and deepen our presence in the insurance sector. Further, Wipro’s commitment to talent development will provide our employees with new growth opportunities. With access to Wipro’s scale and deep technical capabilities, as well as investments in artificial intelligence, we will be able to innovate faster, expand our capabilities and build new ones in alignment with evolving industry needs. We look forward to tapping into the potential ahead of us and driving continued growth for our clients.”

Founded in 2019, Aggne is incorporated in the United States and India, with offices in Tampa, Florida, and Hyderabad, India. The company has 230 employees based in India and the United States.

HCLTech Partners InsurTech Startup Roadzen To Harness AI and Data Engineering

HCLTech has partnered Roadzen, an AI-driven auto insurance technology company to harness the power of AI and data engineering to deliver benefits to both auto insurance carriers as well as their customers.

The partnership will help auto owners preserve the value of their assets, improve safety and reduce insurance premiums. At the same time, it will help carriers with better insights into driver behaviors and improve loss ratios.

Founded 2015, by Rohan Malhotra, Roadzen's pioneering work in telematics and computer vision has earned recognition as a top Al innovator by publications such as Forbes, Fortune and Financial Express. Roadzen has about 400 employees across its global offices in the US, India, UK and France.

"Partnering with Roadzen aligns with our commitment to constantly evolve and offer unparalleled services to our insurance customers. We see AI as a transformative power in the insurance sector and believe the combination of HCLTech’s trusted delivery capabilities with Roadzen’s AI leadership creates a solution that all our clients will be excited to engage with, to redefine insurance experiences," said Srinivasan Seshadri, Chief Growth Officer and Global Head, Financial Services, HCLTech.

The HCLTech-Roadzen partnership underscores the significance of telematics, computer vision and AI in the auto insurance industry. The collaboration draws on and significantly enhances HCLTech’s domain expertise in auto insurance and related service offerings, positioning HCLTech as a forward-looking provider of next-gen insurance technology to clients.

"We are thrilled to collaborate with an industry leader like HCLTech. This synergy perfectly embodies Roadzen's mission to revolutionize insurance through AI and tech-forward solutions," said Rohan Malhotra, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Roadzen.

HCLTech was positioned as Leader in the Everest’s Insurance Business Model Innovation Enablement Services – PEAK Matrix Assessment 2021. It was also recently named a Leader and Star Performer in Everest Group’s Application and Digital Services (ADS) in Property & Casualty (P&C) Insurance PEAK Matrix® Assessment 2023.

Roadzen (RDZN:NASDAQ) is a leading insurance technology company on a mission to transform global auto insurance powered by AI. Thousands of clients - from some of the world’s leading insurers, fleets and carmakers to small fleets, brokers and insurance agents - use Roadzen’s technology to build new products, sell insurance, process claims and improve road safety. Roadzen’s pioneering work in telematics and computer vision has earned recognition as a top AI innovator by publications such as Forbes, Fortune and Financial Express. Roadzen has 400 employees across its global offices in the US, India, UK and France. To learn more, please visit www.roadzen.io.

HCLTech is a global technology company, home to more than 221,000 people across 60 countries, delivering industry-leading capabilities centered around digital, engineering, cloud and AI, powered by a broad portfolio of technology services and products. We work with clients across all major verticals, providing industry solutions for Financial Services, Manufacturing, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Technology and Services, Telecom and Media, Retail and CPG, and Public Services. Consolidated revenues as of 12 months ending September 2023 totaled $12.9 billion. To learn how we can supercharge progress for you, visit hcltech.com.

Wipro To Bring Generative AI To Healthcare Insurance Companies Using NVIDIA AI Enterprise

Collaboration brings together companies’ deep expertise and research in AI and large language models, powered by NVIDIA AI Enterprise software

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO), a leading technology services and consulting company, has recently announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to help healthcare companies accelerate adoption of generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) through AI-driven strategies, products, and services.

Wipro will leverage NVIDIA AI Enterprise software for the production of AI across its current portfolio of healthcare solutions in Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicare, and Medicaid to improve member experience, increase enrolment, and help support claims adjudication. As a result, healthcare organizations will be able to achieve faster, and easier consumption of large language models (LLMs) powered by NVIDIA AI Enterprise, leading to increased productivity, deeper member intelligence, and better operational efficiencies and paving the way for the next wave of healthcare solutions.

“We are delighted to team with NVIDIA to develop next-generation, scalable AI solutions to help our healthcare clients tap into the power of generative AI,” said Nagendra Bandaru, President and Managing Partner, Wipro Enterprise Futuring. “This collaboration will allow us to deliver AI-enabled innovation for the healthcare industry at scale and drive healthcare solutions with advanced computing capabilities. We are looking forward to building healthcare specific solutions for a new era of AI-led innovation and business transformation.”

The collaboration will leverage the NVIDIA AI platform for generative, speech, and translation AI, including NVIDIA AI Foundation Models for building and customizing generative AI models for any application in the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software, such as NVIDIA NeMo and Riva, and the NVIDIA DGX platform.

The integration of these technologies with Wipro’s Enterprise Generative AI (WeGA) framework will enable Wipro to co-develop and deploy custom models for speech and translation AI, as well as other LLMs. Wipro has already developed multiple AI-first enterprise offerings across the healthcare industry leveraging the NVIDIA AI platform. These include an industry-leading billing and enrolment solution in the Medicare and ACA market segment, provider and member services leveraging gen AI capabilities, and specific offerings to improve claims processing and provider data accuracy.

“We are excited to expand on this collaboration with NVIDIA. Wipro’s deep healthcare experience, innovative AI frameworks, and platforms combined with NVIDIA’s leadership in accelerated computing and AI will help the world’s largest healthcare entities to embrace new AI capabilities and re-imagine their business,” said Jason Eichenholz, Senior Vice President and Global Head of Ecosystems & Partnerships at Wipro.

Wipro plans to continue building NVIDIA-powered solutions that will help automate the software development lifecycle and accelerate digital and business transformation. Through an AI Center of Excellence with NVIDIA, Wipro engineers will receive large-scale ongoing training on NVIDIA’s application frameworks in areas like generative AI, the metaverse, conversational AI, and data analytics to accelerate the development of custom solutions.

“Companies are eager to integrate multilingual, voice-enabled generative AI into business applications that are powered by the highest-performing, most energy-efficient solutions available,” said Manuvir Das, Vice President of Enterprise Computing at NVIDIA. “The NVIDIA AI platform supports Wipro’s ongoing commitment to provide its clients with the most advanced, secure, and reliable AI technology and services.”

Most recently, Wipro has been working with the healthcare sector in transforming the contact center experience through generative, speech, and translation AI, providing patients with accurate, contextual, personalized, and timely responses to their care needs based on their past medical records, claim history, and provider information.

For more information on Wipro’s collaboration with NVIDIA, please visit https://www.wipro.com/partner-ecosystem/nvidia-alliance/

About Wipro Limited

Wipro Limited (NYSE: WIT, BSE: 507685, NSE: WIPRO) is a leading technology services and consulting company focused on building innovative solutions that address clients’ most complex digital transformation needs. Leveraging our holistic portfolio of capabilities in consulting, design, engineering, and operations, we help clients realize their boldest ambitions and build future-ready, sustainable businesses. With 250,000 employees and business partners across more than 60 countries, we deliver on the promise of helping our clients, colleagues, and communities thrive in an ever-changing world. For additional information, visit us at www.wipro.com.

6 out of 7 Indian InsureTech Unicorns Focus on B2C, Tackling Penetration Hurdles, Says ICICI Lombard-NASSCOM Research

ICICI Lombard, India's leading private sector general insurance company in collaboration with nasscom has launched a research report titled “Digitalizing Insurance: India End-Consumer Perspective”. Launched at the sidelines of Future Forge 2023, the report highlights the tech integration in the insurance ecosystem – from the creation of tailored insurance products to the ways customers discover, purchase, and manage their policies – and what trends and shifts that are shaping the future of insurance in India.

India as an overall insurance market has grown at nearly 8.4% p.a. since 2018, compared to the global 2.4% during the same time. Non-life insurance have grown a lot faster, clocking between 15% - 20% growth, and surpassing that of life insurance in FY2022. The rise of the sector’s penetration has been in sync with the growing share of its private insurance players significantly. Technology investments in the sector have also increased significantly, driving access and affordable adoption for the consumers.

According to the report, Indian InsurTech startups have successfully secured a collective funding of $2.6 billion since 2018, with approximately 90% of these investments fueling end-to-end InsurTech players. This substantial funding injection has significantly enhanced awareness of various non-life insurance products in India. As per the report, 6 out of 7 Unicorns in India's InsurTech domain are dedicated to the B2C sector, addressing the critical issue of penetration.

 

Digital India mission and standardization of India’s tech stack approach, inspired by UPI’s success, can further aid rapid growth to the insurance market over the next 5-7 years.

India’s digital insurance journey

The report states that the growing digital-usage, data privacy, access to human guidance, and reliable online services are top-of-mind to consumers than the benefits of new-age technology solutions. Going forward, consumer preferences with digital insurance will be centred around simple-to-understand, transparent, trustworthy, and personalized services. Additionally, 24*7 access to the services, user-friendly web interface, mobile accessibility and competitive premium rates will define the future course for the insurers.

Sangeeta Gupta, Sr. Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at NASSCOM, said, “The insurance industry has traditionally relied on face-to-face sales conversations, but with the advent of digitalization, it has transitioned into a hybrid model approach. Cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, automation, and data analytics have played a pivotal role in the digital transformation of insurance operations.”

Girish Nayak, Chief – Technology and Health UW & Claims at ICICI Lombard, said, "In the contemporary insurance landscape, the integration of cutting-edge technologies such as AI, ML, data analytics and digital is profoundly reshaping industry dynamics. Insurers have transcended their traditional roles as mere policy providers and claim payers; they've evolved into architects of data-driven customer journeys and builders of risk management strategies. These transformative technologies empower insurers to offer policies that are finely tailored to individual needs, expedite claims processing with unprecedented efficiency, and gain invaluable insights into customer behaviour. In this digital-driven evolution, ICICI Lombard, as a leading insurance company, not only mitigates risks but also embraces opportunities, where data and customer-centricity are paramount. As the industry marches forward into this era of digitalization, it's about building enduring lifetime relationships with customers, enhancing and protecting their lives, and contributing to a more secure and connected world."

InsurTech Funding Landscape (India) –

• Indian InsurTech Start-Ups raised aggregate $2.6 Bn since 2018 which is relatively more robust with stable share of Insurtech funding as compared to Global InsurTech funding in 2022. 
• ~90% of $2.6 Bn Funding in InsurTech has gone into B2C/Aggregators or End to End InsurTech players positively impacting policy Awareness of various Non-Life Insurance products in India.
• 6 out of 7 Unicorns in India's InsurTech space out are B2C helping solve for Penetration challenge which is 1% Premium as a % of GDP (1/4th of Global Avg)
• 4X to 5X Premium Growth of Funded Aggregators as compared to traditional insurers. As compared to Global (80-90%), in India only 10% of Equity funding in InsurTech goes towards B2B InsurTech Start-Ups that are creating technology solutions for offering custom products (Dynamic products), risk assessments, policy administration to claim processing.

About nasscom

nasscom is the premier trade body and chamber of commerce of the Tech industry in India and comprises over 3000-member companies. Our membership spans across the entire spectrum of the industry from startups to multinationals and from products to services, Global Capability Centers to Engineering firms. Guided by India's vision to become a leading digital economy globally, nasscom focuses on accelerating the pace of transformation of the industry to emerge as the preferred enabler for global digital transformation. Our strategic imperatives are to reskill and upskill India's IT workforce to ensure that talent is future-ready in terms of new-age skills, strengthen the innovation quotient across industry verticals, create new market opportunities - both international and domestic, drive policy advocacy to advance innovation and ease of doing business, and build the industry narrative with focus on Talent, Trust, and Innovation. And, in everything we do, we will continue to champion the need for diversity and equal opportunity.

About ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd.

ICICI Lombard is the leading private general insurance company in the country. The Company offers a comprehensive and well-diversified range of products through multiple distribution channels, including motor, health, crop, fire, personal accident, marine, engineering, and liability insurance. With a legacy of over 21 years, ICICI Lombard is committed to customer centricity with its brand philosophy of ‘Nibhaaye Vaade’. The company has issued over 32.7 million policies, settled 3.6 million claims and has a Gross Written Premium (GWP) of ₹217.72 billion for the year ended March 31, 2023. ICICI Lombard has 305 branches and 12,865 employees, as on March 31, 2023.

ICICI Lombard has been a pioneer in the industry and is the first large scale insurance company in India to migrate its entire core systems to cloud. With a strong focus on being digital led and agile, it has launched a plethora of tech-driven innovations, including the industry first Face Scan on its signature insurance and wellness App - IL TakeCare, with over 6.9 million user downloads. The company has won several laurels including ET Corporate Excellence Awards, Golden Peacock Awards, FICCI Insurance Awards, National CSR awards etc. for its various initiatives. For more details log on to https://www.icicilombard.com

Onsurity Secures $24 Mn in Funding from World Bank's IFC, Nexus Venture Partners, and Quona Capital

Yogesh Agarwal and Kulin Shah (L-R)

The company aims to serve 50,000 businesses and 5 million lives by 2026

Onsurity, India’s first SME-focused monthly subscription-led employee healthcare benefits provider, has raised $24 million in Series B funding. The round is led by International Finance Corporation (IFC), the largest global development institution. Additionally, existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Quona Capital also participated in the round.

The insurtech start-up will utilise this funding to work with its insurance partners to facilitate an unparalleled claims experience for its members by co-creating a technology solution to drive a seamless and transparent journey. This initiative is particularly geared towards eliminating prolonged waiting periods and uncertainties typically associated with claims. This will ensure that all members experience a fully digital, transparent, and efficient benefits utilisation journey that is powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI).

Additionally, these funds will bolster the company's overarching vision to forge partnerships with 50,000+ companies and provide coverage to over 5 million lives by 2026. A portion of this funding will also be allocated towards the company's efforts to charting its path to profitability.

Speaking on the milestone, Yogesh Agarwal, Founder and CEO, Onsurity said, “We are immensely proud of reaching this milestone. Our goal has always been to revolutionise employee healthcare benefits, making them accessible and user-friendly for India’s SMEs. With the strong support of IFC, Nexus Venture Partners, and Quona Capital, we will further intensify our efforts in scaling our tech-based platform which will enable us to extend insurance coverage to a larger spectrum of SMEs, ensuring a comprehensive safety net for their operations.”

Kulin Shah, Co-founder and COO, Onsurity said, “India's SMEs stand at the threshold of a transformative era. The fresh infusion of funds will supercharge our mission to broaden our product offerings by crafting one of the finest tech-led distribution stacks in the industry. It underscores our commitment to shaping innovative partnerships, exploring new geographies, and penetrating underserved customer segments.”

In August, Onsurity became the fastest new-age insurtech to serve a million lives. The company’s reach spans across 5,000+ businesses, leaving an impact on SMEs in 26 Indian states and 3 union territories. It's noteworthy that over 80% of businesses purchasing healthcare memberships from Onsurity have ventured into employee healthcare for the first time.

“The availability of insurance coverage is vital for economic risk management and bolstering social security. Our recent funding underscores our dedication to a technology platform that improves accessibility of employer-sponsored health insurance services," said Wendy Werner, IFC Country Head, India. "Out-of-pocket healthcare expenses can be a significant burden for employees of SMEs. Health insurance helps SMEs manage their expenses while supporting their employees."

With the mission of making healthcare benefits accessible to India’s 'missing middle', Onsurity has catered to a spectrum of companies, ranging from small teams of 3 to established businesses with over 1,000 employees. From covering business executives and start-up employees to gig workers and their dependents, the company boasts of a diverse and inclusive member base. More than half of Onsurity’s members are blue-collar workers, and close to 40% hail from tier II and tier III cities.

Anup Gupta and Anand Datta of Nexus Venture Partners have brought a wealth of experience and strategic acumen to Onsurity’s board. Ganesh Rengaswamy and Sheena Jain of Quona Capital have been an invaluable guiding force in this journey, given Quona’s deep expertise in fintech and having seen similar insurtech businesses in other emerging markets.

The company, through its subsidiary, offers an array of crucial business products, including Cyber insurance, D&O liability insurance, Commercial General Liability insurance, among others under Onsurity Plus. These offerings are designed to provide comprehensive coverage and support SMEs in navigating the complexities of modern risks and challenges.

Transport Community Platform Vahak and InsurTech SecureNow Collab to Ease Access to Cargo Insurance for India

As per NITI Ayog, India transports approx. 4.6 Billion Tonnes of freight annually, generating transport demand of 2.2 Trillion Tonne-km.

As this demand grows, associated road freight movement will increase to 9.6 Trillion Tonne-km by 2050, and so will the need to safeguard the cargo transported.

Vahak, India’s most-trusted transport community platform, has announced a collaboration with SecureNow, a leading tech-enabled insurance platform for businesses, to offer cargo insurance to the Indian trucking community.

Vahak, co-founded by IITians Karan Shaha and Vikas Chandrawat, is on a mission to digitise the Indian logistics sector, which contributes over 14% to India’s GDP. This logistics tech company is fostering India’s largest ecosystem of transport SMEs, shippers, and lorry/fleet owners on its website and app, amid the fast-growing $250 Billion logistics sector in the country.

Karan Shaha, Co-Founder, and CEO at Vahak, said, “Our vision is to build a trusted transport community platform that addresses the needs of transporters, fleet owners, and truckers for growth. While the Indian trucking business remains fragmented and unorganised, and largely not covered under social security benefits, we want to bring peace of mind to the demand and supply sides, helping them mitigate the financial risks associated with transporting goods.”

Discussing the need of the hour, Shaha elaborates, “India transports nearly 4.6 billion tonnes of freight annually, generating transport demand of 2.2 trillion tonne-km, as per NITI Ayog. As this demand grows, associated road freight movement is likely to increase to 9.6 trillion tonne-km by 2050. And as road freight travel grows, the number of trucks is likely to more than quadruple, to roughly 17 million trucks by 2050. And, so will the urgent need to safeguard the transported cargo."

Cargo insurance can protect trucking companies and shippers against losses due to theft, accidents, natural disasters, and other unexpected events that can cause damage or loss of cargo. This can help mitigate the financial impact of these losses and provide peace of mind to both parties. Many shippers and manufacturers may require trucking companies to carry cargo insurance in order to comply with regulations or contractual obligations. Failing to have proper insurance coverage can lead to penalties and legal issues. Having cargo insurance gives fleet owners and truckers competitive advantage over those that do not, as they can offer load owners and manufacturers an added level of protection and reassurance, improving customer satisfaction and building trust in the long run.

India is home to around 60 million MSMEs, many of whom lack the knowledge necessary to purchase reliable transit insurance at the time of booking confirmation. Abhishek Bondia, Co-Founder of SecureNow, explains, “Unfortunately, while small businesses are most vulnerable to accidents, they are unable to give a large share of mind to insurance. Our collaboration with Vahak will help to bring them into the coverage net. Through this partnership, we will make transit insurance more contextual. Firms can buy their insurance at the time of booking the transport. This will ensure higher compliance rate for these businesses, better coverage and lesser administrative overheads.”

SecureNow’s tech-enabled platform offers comprehensive insurance solutions with limited exclusions and low prices. The pre-buying and post-sale process allows businesses to manage their policies with multiple insurers and raise claims through one common platform. With this collaboration, Vahak has added another key feature to safeguard transporters. Vahak had recently announced its collaboration with Coverstack making digital vehicle insurance processes efficient, fast and cost-effective.

About Vahak

Vahak is India’s most-trusted transport community, co-founded by IITians Karan Shaha and Vikas Chandrawat in 2019. The platform fosters India’s largest ecosystem of transport SMEs and lorry owners. Enabling truck and load bookings at 0% commission, Vahak matches diverse loads with the right sectoral requirements of trucks, containers, light commercial and specialised vehicles. Vahak’s vision to digitise the Indian Logistics Sector has been well-backed by investors – Nexus Venture Partners, Foundamental, iSeed Ventures, Leo Capital, RTP Global, Titan Capital and Work Universe – to become the go-to digital solution for India’s road transport logistics. Know more on www.vahak.in

About SecureNow

SecureNow is a leading tech-enabled insurance platform for businesses, offering comprehensive insurance solutions with limited exclusions and low prices. The platform leverages technology to make the pre-buying and post-sale process seamless, allowing businesses to manage their policies with multiple insurers and raise claims through one common platform.

To know more: www.securenow.in

Xceedance Makes Series A Investment in Vitraya, a Blockchain-based Tech Platform in the Healthcare Claims Sector

Xceedance, a global provider of digital transformation solutions, technology, and analytical services to the insurance industry, today announced a Series A equity investment in Vitraya Technologies, an India-based technology platform that enables automated claims decision-making for insurers and real-time payouts to providers. Xceedance, together with a consortium of investors, invested a total of $4.1 million into Vitraya at this stage.

Founded in India, Vitraya Technologies is revolutionizing claims decision-making and settlements in health insurance. Its holistic solution addresses the pain points of both hospital administrators and insurance companies. The platform uses AI and blockchain technologies to automate payment integrity, medical coding, and benefits administration for insurers. The automation ensures easy claims documentation and filing, reduced errors, document and information completeness, and minimal processing time for healthcare providers and insurance claims processors. Healthcare systems utilizing solutions from Vitraya Technologies report reduced claims administration costs, better process transparency, and improved efficiency. Insurers report reduced processing costs and lower fraud losses. 

“The work Vitraya Technologies is doing to enable claims decisions and payments in health insurance is impressive, making the decision to fund the organization at this early stage an easy one,” said Arun Balakrishnan, chief executive officer at Xceedance. “At Xceedance, we have made multiple investments in innovative insurtech organizations across global insurtech markets, but this is the first time we have targeted an India-based company. I look forward to being involved as Vitraya expands to serve larger segments of health insurance globally, starting with the Indian insurance and healthcare markets.”

“This strategic investment from Xceedance is an important enabler for Vitraya,” said Mrinal Sinha, chief executive officer at Vitraya, “Xceedance is a trusted name in the digital transformation of insurance. Working together with Xceedance, we look forward to making insurance claims processing efficient and fraud-proof across the world.”

About Xceedance

Xceedance provides strategic operations support, technology, and data services to drive efficiencies for insurance organizations worldwide. The company helps insurers launch products, implement intelligent technology, deploy advanced analytics, and achieve business process optimization. For more information, please visit www.xceedance.com.

About Vitraya

Vitraya Technologies is building out a tech platform to enable automated, real-time payouts and claims settlements between hospitals/healthcare providers and insurers who offer health insurance products to consumers and businesses. The company was incorporated in Mohali, Punjab on 18th February 2019. For more information, please visit www.vitrayatech.com.

In A Largest By InsurTech, InsuranceDekho Raises $150M in Series A Funding

• Largest ever Series A round by an Indian Insurtech company
• Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TVS Capital Funds led the equity round
• Investcorp, Avataar Ventures and LeapFrog Investments also participated
• Funding InsuranceDekho’s vision of insuring every Indian

InsuranceDekho, India’s leading Insurtech player, today said it has raised $150 million in Series A funding consisting of a mix of equity and debt, the largest ever series A round by an Indian Insurtech company. The equity round was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TVS Capital Funds with participation from Investcorp, Avataar Ventures and LeapFrog Investments.

InsuranceDekho was founded by Ankit Agrawal and Ish Babbar in 2016. Since its inception, the company has seen significant premium growth and aims to achieve annualized premium run-rate of INR 3,500 crores by March 2023.

The latest funding will be used to scale up InsuranceDekho’s product and technology functions, expand to new markets, launch new innovative products in the health and life categories, grow the company’s Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) insurance business, strengthen its leadership team and pursue inorganic growth opportunities.

Ankit Agrawal, CEO and Co-founder, InsuranceDekho, said: “We need to go beyond the urban regions when it comes to insurance penetration in the country. To realize our goal of democratizing insurance for the general public, we are expanding our reach and will continue to build on our tech-based solutions and empowered advisors so that they can serve every village and region of India by the end of the year. India is on the verge of a revolution in insurance, and InsuranceDekho is well positioned to meet the insurance needs of every Indian.”

Ish Babbar, CTO and Co-founder, InsuranceDekho, said: “Insurance distribution in India is a complex problem that needs innovative solutions. The fundraise will enable us to deploy scalable Insurtech solutions in the areas of data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, last mile servicing and claims management while keeping customer experience at the core of everything.”

India’s current insurance penetration is 4.2% of GDP compared to 12% in the USA and 7%2 globally. Almost 85%1 of India’s existing insurance premium is centered in the metros and Tier 1 cities. InsuranceDekho aims to change that. As part of its mission to provide access to insurance throughout the country, InsuranceDekho gets 82% of its premium from Tier 2 and beyond regions. It is present in more than 1,300 towns covering 98% of pin codes in India and is working towards establishing 100% penetration in the country.

By the end of this calendar year, InsuranceDekho aims to have more than 200,000 insurance advisors active on its platform.Typically, most InsuranceDekho insurance advisors observe a threefold increase in total household income within six months of being associated with the company. The advisor's ability to earn more allows them to significantly improve the quality of living for their families.

InsuranceDekho works with most insurance providers and has direct integration with 46 insurance companies across India offering more than 380 insurance products including 175 products for health and life. InsuranceDekho intends to expand its portfolio by offering more products in near future.

Haitong Securities India acted as sole financial advisor to the fundraise.

Amit Jain, CEO and Co-founder, CarDekho Group, said: “Celebrating the spirit of entrepreneurship and thriving on the robust value system, CarDekho Group has promoted the culture of being a ‘House of Founders’ who have fostered various disruptive ideas and propelled these businesses to the orbit of sustainable growth with profitability. It’s heartening to see that InsuranceDekho under Ankit’s leadership, has come a long way as it continues to disrupt the Insurtech space in India by leveraging its unparalleled unit economics, the best technology, phenomenal partner practices, and innovation to set new benchmarks in stakeholder experience.”

Rajat Sood, a Managing Director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management said: “Technological innovation is transforming the Indian insurance industry by making coverage more accessible and affordable. InsuranceDekho has demonstrated a proven ability to bring new-to-insurance channel partners to their platform, while empowering them through technology-based solutions and working closely with insurers. We look forward to leveraging our global domain expertise and supporting the management team in its expansion to provide broader coverage and more solutions nationwide.”

Praveen Sridharan, Partner, TVS Capital Funds said: “Though insurance is vital for financial security of everyone, its penetration is still at 4.2% of Indian GDP compared to global overage of 7.4%. The key for this is to access the middle and lower middle income class—the next 400 million—living in the next 1000 towns of India. InsuranceDekho, with its agency model and digital DNA, offers a powerful mechanism for this penetration to expand. We are convinced on the InsuranceDekho model. Of course, we always back founders who can demonstrate bringing alpha and were impressed with Ankit and the team basis their execution capability, operational excellence, and superior technology skills. We are delighted to partner in their journey of enabling access to insurance products to the 600,000 villages of India.”

About InsuranceDekho

InsuranceDekho was incubated within India’s leading Auto-tech and IPO bound Unicorn - CarDekho Group. InsuranceDekho is a brand name owned by Girnar Insurance Brokers Pvt Ltd (GIBPL). GIBPL was incorporated in 2016 and has been granted the license to act as a Direct Insurance Broker by the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (“IRDAI”) in 2017. It enables its consumers to compare different insurance policies based on their requirements and helps them purchase the most suitable plan. The company currently has tie-ups with 46 insurance companies offering more than 380 plans on its platform. 10 Indians buy a policy from InsuranceDekho every minute. InsuranceDekho is headquartered in Gurgaon and has a presence in 1300+ cities across the country. Multi-talented Director Actor Farhan Akhtar is InsuranceDekho’s brand ambassador.

www.InsuranceDekho.com

In An Industry's First, ICICI Lombard Risk Management Gets Patent for An IoT System

ICICI Lombard risk management receives a patent for IoT-enabled System to avert fire-hazards

In an industry-first move, ICICI Lombard to offer this product to SME and Corporate institutions

In recent years, the evolution and development of IoT (Internet of Things) devices have provided exciting capabilities and services to the end user. IoT devices have also been introduced in different areas to prevent unexpected mishaps caused by human error or malfunctioning of devices. One such mishap that can happen due to malfunctioning of devices is a fire disaster. ICICI Lombard, India’s leading private non-life insurance company, has identified this area to innovate an IoT-based device that protects properties from various electrical hazards. The company has been awarded a patent to offer this product to its customers.

This is an industry-first initiative undertaken by ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company, and this patented electrical IoT solution is a B2B device geared towards SMEs and corporates. The solution monitors electrical hazards to notify and control if necessary on real time basis. Using this patent, the company aims to strengthen its resources to provide technologically robust and quality customer solutions.

Speaking about the recently approved patent, Sanjay Datta, Chief of Underwriting, Claims and Reinsurance, ICICI Lombard, said, “We have been able to see a high rise in the number of fire incidents in commercial as well as residential buildings, which only goes to show that a lot of infrastructure across our nation, especially in densely populated metros, are vulnerable to fire. However, there is an essential need for advanced technology to plan, manage, monitor, and control electricity delivery to enable a safe and reliable system. Technology has always been a major driving force for us at ICICI Lombard to provide cutting-edge risk solutions to millions of customers."

"With this patent approval of an IoT-based - system, we aim to provide not just insurance covers to our customers but also ensure their safety and prevent hazards. This device will serve as a new-risk solution for customers and having introduced several innovative, tech-enabled insurance solutions in the past years gives ICICI Lombard an edge over his peers.”

Majority of fires in India are caused due to electrical installations. Maximum number of disasters in industries are due to electrical problems such as voltage fluctuations, overheating, and ageing of the material and electrical gadgets. Further, causing huge losses and burdens on small industries. Therefore, the launch of such a solution is more relevant.

At ICICI Lombard we work with customers to develop best in class risk management and mitigation practices. Understanding of risk is fundamental to our business. Today, we have made it a key component of risk management and identified ways to view the risk landscape qualitatively and quantitatively. Our risk management cell has been instrumental in enhancing the overall safety culture for several clients. Risk solutions such as Safety Studies, Risk assessments, Sector wise Solutions, etc. have been developed to create awareness among customers. On the technological front, we have started introducing IoT solutions for key components. We have specifically focused on the problems plaguing the MSME and SME segment and their lack of access to quality risk management services. Accordingly, we have reinvented our offerings to include hard data on the electrical, fire and process safety. It is interesting to see how safety and efficiency go together especially with respect to electrical safety. We are starting to see increased awareness as customers and elevate their risk preparedness.

In the past, ICICI Lombard has developed various technological advancements that have ensured a seamless customer experience. The Company is leveraging natural language processing and robotic process automation technology to automate the quote generation process and policy booking for corporate and SME customers. Under SME segment which is close to 90% of the business sourcing is done through digital solutions. Approximetly 97% of ICICI Lombard’s policies today are issued electronically. With the use of AI-based motor break-in solutions for lapsed policy renewal, drones for motor video surveillance, and agent hiring and on boarding moving digital, the use of AI as well as ML in underwriting and risk management has significantly increased for the Company making it the most tech-enabled companies in the sector.

About ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd

ICICI Lombard is one of the leading general insurance companies and the leading motor insurer in the country. The Company offers a comprehensive and well-diversified range of products through multiple distribution channels, including motor, health, crop, fire, personal accident, marine, engineering, and liability insurance. With a legacy of over 20 years, ICICI Lombard is committed to customer centricity with its brand philosophy of ‘Nibhaaye Vaade'. The Company has issued over 29.3 million policies, settled 2.3 million claims and has a Gross Written Premium (GWP) of ₹185.62 billion for the year ended March 31, 2022. ICICI Lombard has 283 branches and 11,085 employees as on March 31, 2022.

ICICI Lombard has been a pioneer in the industry and migrated its entire core systems 100% to the cloud. With a strong focus on being digital led and agile, it has launched a plethora of tech-driven innovations, including Face Scan and Cal Scan on its signature insurance and wellness App - IL TakeCare, with over 3.0 million downloads. The Company has won several laurels including the 'Emerging Company of the Year at ET Corporate Excellence Awards, 'Best General Insurance Company at Annual Best & Emerging Insurance Company Awards, 'ACEF Asian Leadership' for 'Combatting COVID 19' initiatives, Guinness World Record for its CSR initiatives and many more. The awards are a testament to the trust reposed in the Company by its customers, partners, and other stakeholders. For more details log on to www.icicilombard.com

In One of the Largest Funding Rounds in InsurTech Space, Zopper Raises $75 Mn in Series C Funding

Plans to utilize funds for investing in cutting-edge technology, business development initiatives, inorganic growth through M&A, and international expansion

Zopper, one of the leading insurtech startups, today announced that it has raised $75 million in Series C funding, led by Creaegis with participation from ICICI Venture* and Bessemer Venture Partners. Existing investor, Blume Ventures also participated in the round. Tiger Global, currently invested in the company, will continue to extend its support for future growth. The investment in Zopper, is one of the largest funding rounds in the insurtech space in Asia till date.

The fresh capital will allow Zopper to further bolster its SaaS platform and data analytics capabilities, build a next generation data engineering team, fuel business development initiatives, undertake inorganic growth and explore opportunities in the international market. The company aims to achieve an annualized Gross Written Premium (GWP) of USD 500 million by March 2024.

Zopper, established in 2011, is India’s largest embedded insurtech platform that aims to revolutionize insurance distribution via its SaaS platform, deep integration layer and data analytics capabilities. With 150+ partners and presence in over 1200+ cities, Zopper helps B2B and B2C organizations to offer various insurance products and provides end-to-end technology and service offerings to insurers.

Surjendu Kuila

Commenting on the announcement, Mr. Surjendu Kuila, Co-Founder and CEO, Zopper said, “Our deep understanding of Technology, Data and Insurance Products have given rise to the next generation SaaS enabled distribution platform. The Insurance industry is yet to witness usage of such tech-enabled products. Through this platform, Zopper is bringing the partners and insurers together and spearheading a profound transformation in the realm of insurance distribution. We have exponentially grown in the last 4-years, and will continue to grow at a significant pace in the years to come"

Mayank Gupta

"Zopper has the advantage of experience, scale, and efficiency. We partner with our distribution channels throughout the entire lifecycle of their insurance strategy – right from Product Solutioning and API-driven SaaS integrations to Sales Enablement and Claims Management. Our investors share a common vision, which is to build businesses on solid fundamentals, which aligns with the way we have built the company so far. This funding will support the company to fortify its position as a leader in the insurtech industry.” added Mr. Mayank Gupta, Co-Founder and COO, Zopper.

Commenting on funding, Mr. Prakash Parthasarathy, Managing Partner, Creaegis, said “We truly believe in Zopper’s vision of transforming and automating the insurance distribution model in India. Over the years, they have demonstrated their tech and product innovation value to their ecosystem partners and insurers. All this has been achieved in a very capital efficient manner and our investment will help its accomplished management team led by Surjendu and Mayank to scale and improve access to a wider customer base. We are privileged to be their partner and we are committed to support their journey given our experience in this space.”

Mr. Gagandeep S Chhina, Director - Private Equity, ICICI Venture said “We believe that technology will play an important role in improving distribution efficiency and increasing penetration of insurance and assurance products. Given ICICI Venture’s successful investment track record in the Insurance sector, we think Zopper is well positioned to capture this long-term growth opportunity. We are excited to support the management team’s vision to establish Zopper as a leading Insurtech player with its scalable technology, multiple insurer tie-ups and partnerships with distribution channels across sectors”

Mr. Vishal Gupta, Partner, Bessemer Venture Partners, said “We are excited to back Surjendu and Mayank, in what we think will become the default API-led, SaaS distribution infrastructure platform for insurance companies to cross-sell relevant insurance products at the point-of-sale to the captive consumer base of the large and medium companies both online and offline. We have known this team for a decade and have been really impressed by their tenacity and what they have achieved in a relative short period over the last two years”

Haitong Securities was the investment banker for the transaction.

About Zopper: Zopper, established in 2011, is India’s largest embedded insurtech platform that aims to democratize access to insurance distribution via its SaaS platform. With a presence in over 1200+ cities, Zopper helps B2B and B2C organizations adopt various insurance products and provides end-to-end technology and service offerings to Insurers. Zopper has over 150 ecosystem partners, which include some of India's largest brands such as Amazon, Ola, Xiaomi, Croma, Hitachi, Equitas Small Finance Bank, Chaitanya, and many more. For more details, please visit: Zopper

European Agri-Insurtech Startup IBISA Raises Seed Funding from India's Ankur Capital

Agri insurtech startup IBISA announced that Ankur Capital, an India-based leading early-stage venture capital fund focused on transformative technologies in deeptech and climate tech has joined its seed round. Luxembourg-based Insurtech startup IBISA is on a mission to empower the Agri value chain players with innovative weather protection insurance solutions.

Founded in 2019, IBISA started its operations in India with the DHAN Foundation to provide parametric insurance against drought coverage in Tamil Nadu. Fast forward to now, IBISA is scaling its operations in India with operations in Odisha, Karnataka, Telangana for coverage against excess rainfall, excess wind speed and drought. They have also opened a registered office in Feb 2022 in Bengaluru.

70% of the global food supply comes from smallholder farmers and more than 50% of the Indian workforce is into agriculture and allied sectors that contribute to just 20% of India’s GDP. With climate change happening at a rapid scale, most of these smallholder farmers are vulnerable to unforeseen climatic conditions that lead to damage of crops. It is not that there are not any insurance solutions to cater that, but there is a huge gap between the cost of insurance and the willingness to pay premiums and the relevance of the existing insurance products and the need of the farmers.

Speaking on the investment, Ritu Verma, Partner at Ankur Capital mentioned, “The unavailability of data has hampered the growth of the agricultural insurance industry in developing countries for decades. Legacy crop insurance involved long manual processes making them impractical for developing markets where smallholder farming is the norm, and parametric insurance has historically been unviable due to the lack of detailed climate-related datasets. We are excited to partner with IBISA to transform the scale of available parametric insurance options in countries like India with a vast addressable market.”

“Farming is an integral part of both our societal and economic infrastructure. The impact that the war in Ukraine is having on food prices and food security seriously underscores the importance of global agriculture. And yet the support isn’t there. With IBISA, we sought to create technology that would help reduce costs for the active players in the insurance space. Finding a way to responsibly protect farmers in the event of extreme weather, by slashing distribution and operating costs, making it affordable to many groups in the value chain. And it’s no small challenge. But we’re already seeing results. A small evidence of our success is the fact that when the Philippines was hit by Typhoon Odette in Dec’21, our insurance partner, CLIMBS was able to do payouts within 10 days after the typhoon hit Philippines with IBISA’s weather protection coverage in place.” said Maria Mateo Iborra, CEO & Co-founder, IBISA.

Apart from India, IBISA has its operations in New Zealand, Guatemala, Senegal, Philippines, and other African countries. With strong insurance and reinsurance partnerships across different geographies and tailor-made products for lack of rain, excess rainfall, extreme temperatures, excess wind speed and cyclones, IBISA is able to address the needs of various Agri value chain players.

So whether there is a risk pertaining to defaults, securing the supply chain, strengthening farmer connection or increasing sustainability practices in agriculture, weather protection insurance solutions act as a tool to mitigate unforeseen climate-risks and empower organizations and ultimately farmers to increase their resilience against climate change.

The company is also in talks with a number of large lenders, food processors, and Agritech clients across different geographies to mitigate their credit risk against default, reduce their supply chain risks and increase their sustainability practices in agriculture and strengthen farmer connection with smallholder farmers in India and abroad.

If you consider climate risk as a threat to your business and value chain and want to expand into parametric climate insurance then get in touch with us at info@ibisa.network to discuss specific use cases.