Insurtech funding: Y Combinator-backed insurtech startup Bimaplan has raised $3.5 million in a pre-series A funding round led by Orios Venture Partners and participation from existing investors Finsight Ventures and 2am VC. The latest round took the total funding raised to $6 million, the startup said in a statement on Tuesday.
Bimaplan onboards organizations serving rural and semi-urban customers as channel partners and enables them to sell insurance products through its embedded platform. The startup said it has served over a million customers in the last two years since it began operations.
“India has a low insurance penetration at around 4 per cent of GDP, far behind the global average of 7 per cent. A large part of India’s adult population, nearly 400 million people, does not have access to any kind of insurance, despite the sector growing at a staggering 17 per cent CAGR over the last two decades,” the company said.
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The latest round of funding will be deployed to enhance the features and scalability of its technology platform and launch new products to cater to the needs of its customers. The company said it will also strengthen its distribution network by expanding existing channels and launching new verticals to reach more people.
Vikul Goyal, founder and CEO, Bimaplan said, “The latent demand for insurance is growing, given a large young workforce and an expanding middle class. With this new funding, we endeavour to build a sustainable and profitable distribution network, removing the inefficiencies across the value chain with our strong technology suite. We are grateful to both our existing and incoming investors for helping us move closer to our goal of insuring 10 million lives in the next 2-3 years.”
According to Bimaplan, the Indian insurance market is projected to grow at 15 per cent year-on-year over the next decade driven by increased awareness, technology adoption and regulatory tailwinds. Moreover, the insurance regulator IRDAI has envisioned insurance for all by 2047.
Sukhmani Bedi, Partner, Orios Venture Partners said, “Insurance penetration in India has been historically low compared to the West presenting a massive opportunity. However, building insurance products for the semi-urban population belonging to tier 2 towns and above has proved to be challenging with online channels accounting for just 2% of the premiums collected.”
