PhonePe to serve as Direct Insurance Broker

India’s fastest growing Insurtech company, PhonePe, announced it has got an Insurance Broking license issued from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) and it will now serve as Direct Insurance Broker.

Highlights

• PhonePe entered the Insurtech sector in the year 2020 with a limited insurance ‘corporate agent’ license.
• This license had restricted the company to partner with only three Insurance companies per category.
• Now, it has received a ‘Direct Broking’ license. As a result, it will now distribute insurance products from all insurance companies of India.
• New broking license will also allow PhonePe to start offering personalized product recommendations for its 300+ million users.
• It will also be offering a much more diverse portfolio of insurance products for consumers in India.

Background

PhonePe came in to the insurance segment in January 2020 as a ‘corporate agent’. Since then, it has since launched offerings across general insurance, term insurance as well as health insurance. Response towards its insurance product, launched from millions of customers, encouraged PhonePe to apply for an Insurance Broking license in order to expand its insurance offering for consumers.

About PhonePe

PhonePe is an Indian digital payments and financial services. It is headquartered in Bangalore. It was founded in December 2015 by Sameer Nigam, Burzin Engineer and Rahul Chari. This is based on the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) and it went live in August 2016. The app is available in 11 Indian languages. This app allows users to send and receive money, DTH, recharge mobile, data cards, pay at shops, make utility payments, liquid funds, invest in tax saving funds etc. It also allows to book Ola rides, pay for Redbus tickets, and book flights & hotels through the Switch platform.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2021