Bimaonline.com's chief executive officer B Anand told eFE that the fundswould be used towards various expansion and promotional activities spreadover a period of two years. The expansion plans would include setting upback-end offices in all metros during the fiscal besides improvingtechnology infrastructure. The portal's first back-end office in the countryis already operational in Hyderabad.

Anand said currently the portal was gearing up to rope in around 100 foreigninsurance firms entering India by the end of the fiscal for insurancebroking business. ``We are targeting around 50 each foreign insurance firmshandling life and non-life insurances,'' he said. The portal already enteredinto tie-ups with 20 insurance companies for life and non-life segments.Anand said the portal was waiting for the Insurance Regulatory DevelopmentAuthority's (IRDA) clearance for insurance broking. ``Once it is cleared bythe parliament, we will get into insurance broking business bridging the gapbetween the insurance firms and the public,'' Anand said. The insurancebroking was expected to be legalised in the country by September, he said.

He said the portal would soon have a sub portal on corporate and commercialinsurance. The sub-portal would include information on insurance andconsultancy services.

According to Anand, Bimaonline.com would function as a single pointreference to all kinds of information on insurance products and policies.The portal would soon have online transaction facility, he said.He said portal was also working on country specific portals starting withSingapore and the Middle East. ``Our insurance portal for Middle East willbe launched during the fiscal,'' he said.

Bimaonline.com currently has 250 agents working across the country. A coupleof portals were in talks with Bimaonline for outsourcing content andservices, Anand said.