Digital payments platform PhonePe has further strengthened its insurance portfolio. The company has now expanded into car and bike insurance segment in tie-up with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. PhonePe had forayed into insurance vertical beginning with travel insurance back in January this year followed by Coronavirus insurance in April with Bajaj Allianz General Insurance. Walmart-owned Flipkart had also entered into car and two-wheeler insurance market in May this year after offering life and Covid-19 health insurances. Later in July, Amazon’s payment arm Amazon Pay followed suit by offering two and four-wheeler insurance policies in partnership with car and bike insurance startup Acko General Insurance.
PhonePe, which claimed of over 230 million registered users, said that car and bike insurance customers would be able to renew their policies, get cashless repair services across a network of garages in India and also instant claim settlement through new service. PhonePe said users would also be able to customise their car insurance plan based on their needs with offerings including zero depreciation, 24X7 roadside assistance, engine protection etc.
“We believe there is tremendous headroom for growth in the motor insurance segment as two-wheelers account for 70% of the vehicles in the country and a bulk of these are uninsured,” said Gunjan Ghai, VP & Head of Insurance, PhonePe in a statement. “Motor insurance is necessary and provides protection during accidents. Still, we have many vehicles across India, both two-wheelers and four-wheelers, which are either not insured or are underinsured,” said Sourabh Chatterjee, President & Head – IT, Web Sales & Travel at Bajaj Allianz General Insurance.
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PhonePe entered into financial services space back in 2017 with the launch of its digital gold allowing users to buy 24-karat gold on its platform. The company has since launched mutual funds and other insurance financial products such as tax-saving funds and liquid funds.
India’s under-penetrated insurance market offered a huge opportunity for digital players to tap into. As per Statista, the overall insurance sector’s penetration was only 3.7 per cent in 2018 while life insurance’s penetration was around 2.74 per cent and for non-life insurance segment, the market penetration was lower at 0.97 per cent. In addition, the general insurance managed to penetration marginally from 0.6 per cent in FY09 to 0.9 per cent in FY19 vis-à-vis 2.8 per cent global average.