Mobile wallet firm Mobikwik launches digital insurance, eyes 15 lakh policies by FY19

To tap an unexplored digital insurance market and become a full stacked financial service provider in India, digital payments firm MobiKwik has launched digital insurance on its app.

The company is selling insurance at Rs 20 per year which gives a Rs 1 lakh cover for accidental death and permanent total disability. It will partner with other leading insurance firms to offer an extensive range of products. Buying insurance will be now two-step process on the app with the help of advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence algorithm.

"With the exponential increase in the adoption of smartphones and penetration of the internet in India, there is huge potential ready to be tapped in digital insurance sector," said Upasana Taku, Co-founder and Director, MobiKwik. MobiKwik aims to cater to over 150 million people selling 15 lakh policies by end of this fiscal year.

It claims to have over 107 million customers on its platform.

This is the third financial service product launched by the mobile wallet firm after the launch of instant loan and digital gold this year. Last month, it has launched an instant credit product called Boost and entered wealth management services through the acquisition of Clearfunds.

MobiKwik plans to invest $15 million to scale up its wealth management business.

Noticeably, all the products it has launched are on the lines of its competitor Softbank-backed Paytm. From UPI to lending to wealth management to insurance, all these products have first been launched by Paytm.

Now, Paytm has partnered with the Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) to offer online insurance premium payments on its platform.

We are excited to announce that you can now make insurance premium payments for more than 30 top insurers on Paytm, including the country’s largest insurance firm — Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC).

— Paytm (@Paytm) November 21, 2018

Paytm will provide premium payment solutions from over 30 insurance companies including LIC, ICICI Prudential Life, Reliance Life, and Max Life Insurance among others.

In India, online insurance sales market is expected touch Rs 11k-15k crore, from Rs 700 crore, by 2020.

For FY17, Mobikwik had posted a 1.8 per cent decline in total revenue to Rs 37.3 crore in FY17 as against Rs 38 crore in FY16. It registered a 20.1 per cent jump in losses to Rs 131.1 crore, according to the filings with Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Founded nine-year ago by Bipin Preet Singh and Upasana Taku, the Gurugram-based e-wallet company has so far raised over $130 million fundings from likes of Sequoia Capital, Net1, American Express Bajaj Finance amongst others.