Riskcovry: Aiming to insure a million people by next year

"Riskcovry has processed 4.5 lakh policies in FY 2022. These policies are processed through our platform. We're aiming to cover over 1 million lives in the next financial year," says Suvendu Prusty, Co-founder, Director and Principal Officer, Riskcovry in an exclusive interaction with Bizz Buzz.

Excerpts from the interview.

Can you tell me about Riskcovry? And how it started? So when was the company set up?

We incorporated in February 2018.

Can you talk about the investments received so far?

We have raised approximately a total of $8 million till date. Our last round was $5.3 million in March 2021 from Omidyar Network India, Pentathlon Ventures and Delhi-based DMI Sparkle Fund. Previously, we also closed a $1.25 million pre-Series A round in May 2020, led by Bharat Inclusion Seed Fund, Varanium Capital and Better Capital, which have also participated in the current round.

Is it like payment premium?

It is end-to-end, Sir.

Are you an aggregator?

That is up to the client- our platform has the capability to aggregate or offer a single insurance, that is, you have the option - the distributor can decide whether they want to offer a single insurer journey or a compressive one. All of these choices are given which has helped us getting a lot of acceptance across various segments of clients. So, we have processed more than 5.5 lakh policies over a period of two years.

Shouldn't it be four years?

No. Because the first one and a half years we were deliberating on finding the right product to market fit. It's in the last two years is when the actual transactions begun occurring.

And in terms of the number of policies, what are your growth projections for the next FY?

We have processed 4.5 lakh policies in FY 2022. These policies are processed through our platform. We're aiming to cover over 1 million lives in the next financial year.

Could you give some records, as to how many of the policies issued are on health insurance and how many of them are term insurance?

Broadly about 65-70 per cent are related to health insurance. It is important to note that they might not all be standalone health insurance, they could also be from general. People take both health and standard life insurance policies.

What about life insurance offerings?

It is very low right now since life insurance is still, from a digital end to end journey perspective, requires little time and the approvals are slow as they don't allow everything to happen on a real time basis. Life insurance findings are high and their underwriting systems are different. But yes, there are small ticket size insurance modules.

I have one more query. This motor insurance, after two - three years, there has been a revision in policies. Quite possibly from the middle of the month, we will see the revised guidelines of motor services and third party motors - which is the online category, so I wish to know from you how you look at it and which kind of changes you need to do in your system. I mean, would you kindly throw some light on it?

Yeah. Because we are from the industry, we know that these things are regular phenomena. We have created these provisions while we design the architecture of the system.

We have built a system where the validations, premium calculations, and policy issuance and transfer data in a secure manner starting from the lending company to the insurance company - all of it is encrypted. So, solving the entire ecosystem's problem - this is one of the biggest focus areas for this year. We will also be working with some of the largest brands in the home finance and consumer lending. We are already in discussions for the same, and probably in one month's time, we will be signing 2-3 contracts.

As of now, there is no mandate that if you are buying a home, it is essential to get a home insurance product or one should protect their lives. It is still optional. It is unlike the third party operations.

Right. It is not mandatory by the government, but the lending organisation makes it mandatory so that in case of an eventuality, if the main earning member is not alive, then the family should not be living with the burden of this loan. This is why they make it a requirement, as a part of their lending agreement to have some form of insurance. If you already have one, then it is fine, but if you don't have, you can get one from them. They are also willing to finance that premium, so that it is hurting today and you are paying over a period of five years to 10 years.

If I have both a car and motor insurance, some team will come and take a photo. So, how do we manage processes for both the vehicles?

Sir, those digital solutions also have already been launched by insurance companies. An insurance company can send you a link through WhatsApp or SMS, and you open that link, it opens a camera and your camera is activated on your phone. Now you can take pictures of your existing vehicle from various directions which they will be guiding you on - like taking pictures from the front, back, inside, etc, and then you upload it. Now the software is able to recognise the existing damages and then give you a decision in half hour whether they will accept the vehicle for insurance or not.