RenewBuy to provide insurance for electric vehicles

Using technology, RenewBuy Insurance is simplifying and digitising motor, life and health insurance.

Technology is playing a vital role in disrupting the insurance industry in India and is helping create differentiation in consumer experience and service as well as enhancing geographical access, especially to smaller towns and rural India. Using technology, RenewBuy Insurance is simplifying and digitising motor, life and health insurance. Balachander Sekhar, CEO, RenewBuy tells Telangana Today, the future insurance offerings and major trends in the sector.

Current user base

RenewBuy today has over 50,000 point-of-sale partners (from 25,000 during pre-Covid) catering to customers across 600 districts in India. The platform has serviced over 2 million customers till date and is seeing a run rate of 33,000 transactions every month. We are today a Rs 1,000-crore company and next year we expect to touch Rs 2,000-crore mark. Today we have partnered with 34 insurance companies including 18 motor insurance, 12 health insurance and four life insurance.

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Covid impact

In the months of April and May 2020, commercial vehicle insurance renewals got delayed, postponed and cancelled. Even private car owner insurance was impacted. Post June, there has been recovery in renewals. On the life insurance front, there has been a slowdown due to reluctance to take long-term savings products. However, term and health insurance have risen significantly. RenewBuy has gained market share from the traditional players. Covid also presented a lot of challenges for underwriting in the sector.

Base in Telangana

Today there are at least 1,000 agents on RenewBuy platform in the State and we plan to take this to 10,000 in the next three years. In FY21, we will be doing a business of Rs 50 crore in Telugu States and expect to take this to Rs 150 crore next fiscal. We are in 50 districts in Telangana and AP catering to motor, life and health insurance.

Motor insurance trend

There are roughly 3.5 crore cars in India of which three crore have insurance and 50 lakhs will be lapsed policies. This represents about Rs 25,000-30,000 crore. There are 17 crore two-wheelers in India of which only four crore vehicles have insurance and 13 crore are still not insured. RenewBuy is keen to address this under penetration and is going to smaller towns through a technology-led model.

EV insurance

In the next financial year, we will foray into and dominate the electric vehicle (EV) insurance segment. There is a huge potential in this space for at least next 10 years. We are talking to 3-4 top insurers to address the issues related to battery insurance for two-wheelers. We are also talking to EV manufacturers. We want to mitigate the underwriting risk. We want to occupy a significant market share in four-wheeler and two-wheeler EV insurance. By the second half of 2021, we will be ready with these offerings.

Travel insurance

We will soon announce a major partnership with a major travel aggregator to provide travel insurance through their agents. We are betting big on travel insurance. There are 2-2.5 crore Indians who travel overseas and not even 10 per cent of this population go for travel insurance. We are building customer touchpoints to educate the importance of travel insurance. Covid is only going to trigger the travel insurance segment. Late 2021 and from 2022, we could see a surge in travel and we are gearing up with suitable offerings.

Small businesses

We are addressing under-penetration in this space with suitable solutions for small businesses. We are building a whole new package for small businesses and shop keepers covering insurance against fire, business continuity, theft, natural calamity and other risks. We want to offer cumbersome-free products.

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