Finhaat: A financial product delivery platform for rural areas

“Most products that we see in rural areas are the products that are built for the urban population. The benefits and product cost is watered down and sold in rural areas,” said Vinod Singh, CEO and co-founder of Finhaat.

Founded in 2021, Finhaat is a financial product delivery platform created focusing on the rural, tier 3 and 4 cities of India. Having noticed that these cities often lacked proper customization of products and after sales support, former batchmates Vinod Singh, Sandeep Katiyar, and Navneet started Finhaat.

The trio started the company with the belief that everyone will be able to manage their financial health with the access to solutions that align with their financial goals.

The Mumbai-based company partners with financial product providers and connects them with institutions with a distribution channel to reach the population that needs services like insurance and savings in rural areas.

Finhaat handholds the partner company till the end product can be presented to the consumers. It works to understand the requirements of the product, curate and design the product from insurance to claims, and then offer it on the website as a product of the insurance company with a complete digital journey across sales and claims processes.

Additionally, the company trains the field staff of the partnering institutions about the details of the product and how they handle the digital processes to the end users.

“We don’t expect individuals from our target market to be fluent with the use of smartphones and conduct purchases for insurance products online. This is why we train the field staff to assist with the entire process,” Singh explained.

Currently the platform offers only insurance broking as a service, it later plans to bring in savings as part of its offerings.

The company has covered around 60% of the pin codes and partnered with around 50 institutions. From the 30 lakh individuals who have been entered in the platform a majority are rural, 5-7% of the users’ hail from tier 3 and tier 4 cities.

The company has raised an undisclosed amount for its pre-seed round and is looking to expand its ecosystem before raising its next round.