Ratan Tata and Tiger Global-backed wealth management platform Upstox has entered into the insurance distribution business. The platform has onboarded HDFC Life as the first insurer on its platform. It will feature its term insurance plans on the latter’s platform.
With this launch, the company aims to revolutionise India’s insurance landscape by offering its users a simplified, transparent and customised experience of purchasing insurance in line with their needs, the fintech company said in a release.
At present, Upstox offers term life Insurance on its platform and is planning to roll out health, motor and travel insurance in the future. The fintech major has traditionally been known for its offerings in stocks, F&O, and mutual funds, but the introduction of insurance marks a significant stride towards evolving into a comprehensive wealth-building platform.
“Currently, the insurance penetration in India stands at just 4.2% with a considerable portion of the population still being dependent on traditional and agent-driven models to purchase policies. Along with that, there is a lack of awareness, overload of choices, heavy paperwork and complex jargon involved in the process of buying insurance,” the release said.
Upstox is a one-stop-shop for a wide array of financial instruments including stocks, IPOs, F&O, commodities, currencies, fixed deposits, P2P lending, government bonds, T-Bills, NCDs, gold, insurance and much more, the release said.
“Through its research, Upstox recognised that often users succumb to a one-size-fits-all approach; and opt for a term insurance plan without proper assessment. Upstox has thus set out to solve the gross mis-selling of insurance products and embarked on a monumental task of streamlining life, health, motor, travel insurance for its customers. By leveraging advanced technology and industry expertise, Upstox aims to simplify the insurance process – from identifying the top plans in each category to purchasing insurance and finally making the claim process smooth,” it said.
“We are thrilled to expand our offerings on Upstox and foray into the insurance distribution segment. We have recognised that navigating the insurance landscape is a daunting task. Customers are inundated with so many questions – which is the right plan, what should be the correct criteria to select a plan, how much insurance cover will be enough,” said Kavitha Subramanian, Co-Founder, Upstox.
Suresh Badami, Deputy Managing Director, HDFC Life said, “We are pleased to announce our partnership with Upstox. This marks another stride towards realising India’s goal of ‘Insurance for All’ by 2047. We aim to utilise our distribution and digital capabilities to extend our insurance solutions to their entire customer base and enhance the value of this partnership.”