Kiwi General Insurance, backed by Westbridge Capital, on Friday commenced operations in India’s highly competitive non-life insurance market with the launch of its motor insurance product and a target to reach ₹300 crore of gross written premium (GWP) in its first year.
“Motor was the natural starting point because we had a clear understanding of both the product differentiation and the pricing innovations we wanted to introduce,” Saurav Jaiswal, MD and Chief Executive of Kiwi General Insurance, told FE.
The company is betting on technology-led underwriting and personalised pricing to differentiate itself in a market dominated by 25 established private and public sector insurers. Motor insurance is the second-largest segment in India’s non-life insurance market after health insurance, with gross premiums of about ₹1.08 lakh crore in FY26.
In-House Tech Stack
Jaiswal said the industry does not suffer from a lack of innovative product ideas or pricing models, but many insurers continue to operate on legacy technology platforms that limit flexibility.
Kiwi has developed a proprietary in-house technology stack that it says will enable hyper-personalised underwriting and pricing. The insurer plans to move away from broad cohort-based pricing towards individualised risk assessment. “Today, two customers with similar vehicle profiles often receive the same premium. We believe there are inefficiencies in that model,” Jaiswal said.
Kiwi’s pricing engine evaluates around 32 variables linked to the vehicle registration number and mobile number, including claim history and other risk indicators, to arrive at a personalised price. “For instance, two customers in Mumbai driving the same vehicle and having similar No Claim Bonus histories could receive different premiums,” he said
Veteran Leadership
Kiwi General Insurance was founded by former Tata AIG General Insurance MD and CEO Neelesh Garg and Jaiswal, who together bring decades of experience from companies including Tata AIG General Insurance, ICICI Lombard and erstwhile Bharti AXA General Insurance. The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India granted the company a licence in March.
“Depending on market response, we believe a gross written premium of approximately ₹200-300 crore is achievable in our first year,” Jaiswal said. The company will initially focus on motor insurance before expanding into health, fire, liability and marine insurance. “Motor may account for around 45-48% of our portfolio, compared with roughly 38-40% for the industry, with the balance coming from other lines of business,” he said.
Kiwi has already onboarded about 1,000 distribution partners. The company plans to adopt a multi-channel distribution strategy spanning agents, brokers, online insurance aggregators, and its own direct-to-customer digital platform.