Page 6 - Insurance Times September 2020

General Insurance

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FASTag must for vehicle and the regulator has been trying to initiative to complete the ecosystem
increase the coverage. play. Over the years, under Ankit
insurance from April '21 Agrawal's leadership, it has taken a life
From April next year, you won't be able InsuranceDekho to receive of its own and ranks among the lead-
to renew the third party insurance of ing insuretech companies in the coun-
your vehicle except for two and three- $20 mn funding from par- try. The other ventures of GirnarSoft
wheelers, if it doesn't have a valid ent GirnarSoft are CarDekho.com, Zigwheels.com
FASTag. Moreover, all vehicles with four InsuranceDekho, India's leading insur- and gaadi.com.
or more wheels would need to have
ance platform said that GirnarSoft has "They have inherited CarDekho's capi-
FASTag from January 1 and violation of committed $20 million (around Rs. 147 tal efficiency and tech prowess but are
this would attract a penalty of Rs 300 crore) investment in the company. The building a large and independent busi-
to Rs 500. firm will use the funding for "branding ness of their own. This proposed fund
The road transport ministry has pub- and strengthening their tech, product infusion is our vote of confidence in
lished a draft notification proposing and sales teams". their ability to build India's most endur-
these changes in the Central Motor "This new capital infusion will be used ing insuretech business in India," Jain
Vehicle Rules (CMVR) in order to in- to expand our digital footprint. We are further added.
crease penetration of FASTags. Though already a force to reckon with in the "In the first phase of our journey, we
all cars and other bigger vehicles sold B2B space. With this round we aim to created a unique three-way market-
after December 1, 2017 have got the invest in branding and marketing to place of insurance consumers, India's
FASTags since this was made manda- further strengthen our B2C platform leading insurance companies and dis-
tory for registration, a huge number of which has been seeing strong traction tribution partners. Our focus was on
old vehicles don't have the valid smart over the last two quarters," said Ankit building an industry leading tech stack
tags. Agrawal, chief executive officer and and a platform that each of our stake-
co-founder, InsuranceDekho. holders trusted," Agrawal added.
"This move will ensure greater cover-
age of the FASTag used for making toll InsuranceDekho recently announced "Our unique consultative approach
charge payment digitally," said a plans to onboard 1 lakh insurance ad- coupled with the tailwinds that the
source. visors across country. They have al- insurance industry is witnessing pre-
ready enrolled 20,000 advisors. sents us a rare opportunity to create
However, there are concerns whether
the insurance companies and the in- InsuranceDekho, an omni channel in- a large, profitable, and impactful busi-
surance regulator would find it possible surance platform, is a subsidiary of ness," said chief executive officer of
to ensure that only vehicles with GirnarSoft. Commenting on the invest- InsuranceDekho.
FASTags can renew the third party in- ment, Amit Jain, chief executive officer Launched in 2017, InsuranceDekho is
surance. Currently, nearly 50% of the and co-founder, GirnarSoft said, an insuretech venture that enables
vehicles have this insurance coverage "InsuranceDekho started as a modest consumers to compare different insur-
The Insurance Times, September 2020 5