Good Morning Dear Reader with a first of of Islamic Year,
Can you recall the last time you set foot in a bank? The shift from offline to online in banking couldn't be any more decisive. But insurance is a different beast. How else do you explain the decision of a company that started its journey in the digital arena to have a physical footprint? I'm talking of the online insurance aggregator The PolicyBazaar. Last week, the SoftBank-backed company’s parent, PB Fintech, filed for an $810 million initial public offering at a reported valuation of $5 billion.
In today's comprehensive feature for our Forum, the 13-year-old outfit—with a registered user base of 48 million—may not have much room for growth online. From younger insurance startups such as Plum and Even Health to payments provider PayTM (which is also IPO-bound) and mobility company Ola, everyone seems to be selling insurance. And the online channel still accounts for a measly 1% of all insurance sales in India. Only half of this comes from aggregators. So it's not surprising that Policy Bazaar now wants to sell insurance the old-fashioned way—by pounding the pavement. In June, it obtained a licence to be an insurance broker. This allows it to sell a wider range of products, including fire, marine, and group health insurance. And this also expands its customer base to include corporate clients.
But feet on the ground doesn't come so cheap and could take its toll on Policy Bazaar's margins too. Do read our article on the subject matters to make sense of the road ahead for a pioneer in a fascinating industry in current scenario prevailing existing in our environment...
