Page 13 - Insurance Times June 2021

was launched on December 1, 2018, to startup had raised $5 million in earlier making it accessible, affordable and
provide coverage to about 3.17 lakh rounds last year. usable for employees. It has over 600
below poverty line (BPL) families in the Angel investors Kunal Shah (founder of organisations such as Groww,
Jammu division. Cred), Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini and Unacademy, Twilio, CleverTap,
UrbanLadder on-board.
With a view to provide universal health Hemesh Singh (founders of
coverage, the AB-PMJAY-Sehat Unacademy), LalitKeshre, Harsh Jain "As India's healthcare insurance
scheme was conceived and rolled out and Ishan Bansal (founders of Groww), industry rapidly expands and
in the Union Territory in convergence Ramakant Sharma and Anuj Srivastava transforms, Plum is well positioned to
with the AB-PMJAY scheme from (founders of Livspace), and Douglas make comprehensive health insurance
December 26 last year, Financial Feirstein (founder of Hired) also accessible to millions of Indians. We are
Commissioner for Health and Medical participated in this round. excited to partner with Abhishek,
Education AtalDulloo said. Saurabh and the Plum team as they
Plum said it would use the fresh fund
scale their leading tech-enabled
"Till date, 20.46 lakh golden cards have for engineering, business development
platform to employers across the
been issued. At least one member of and operations. The company is
6.68 lakh families has been issued building insurance products for country," said Scott Shleifer, Partner at
golden card in the Jammu region," he businesses with seven employees or Tiger Global.
said. less and cannot afford to pay annual
premiums. Plum is additionally looking Navi General Insurance
It provides health insurance cover of up
at building deeper API integrations
to Rs. 5 lakh per family per year on launches monthly
floater basis to 7.14 lakh additional with leading insurers such as ICICI
Lombard, Care Health, Star Health and subscription-based health
families of the Jammu division, Mr.
Dulloo said. New India Assurance. insurance
Thus, about 10.31 lakh families in the "Plum aims to reach a milestone of 10 Navi General Insurance has introduced
division are currently availing benefits million lives insured by 2025, by a monthly subscription (EMI) based
under the scheme, he said. changing the employee health insurance product instead of paying
insurance space. With Plum, we are the annual premium upfront to make
As many as 92 hospitals have been making the process transparent, health insurance affordable.
empanelled by the government under affordable and easy, using tech at
the scheme, Mr. Dulloo said. scale. The adoption of health insurance Navi General Insurance is a wholly
As a part of Ayushman Bharat by startups, SMEs and corporates is owned subsidiary of Sachin Bansal-led
Navi Technologies. The insurance
programme, 599 health and wellness increasing exponentially, and is further
policies can be purchased at EMIs
centres (HWCs) have been set up in the accelerated by the ongoing Covid-19 starting as low as INR 240 per month,
Jammu division to provide pandemic," said Abhishek Poddar, co- said the company. Navi offers health
comprehensive primary health care, founder and chief executive officer of insurance cover ranging from INR 2
including universal screening of Plum. Lakh to INR 1 Cr for individuals and
common non- communicable diseases The group health insurance market in families. The company claims that it
such as cancer and diabetes, he said.
India, which is almost 50 per cent of has a claim settlement ratio of 97.3%
the total $3.5 billion health insurance and a network of 10,000+ cashless
Tiger Global leads $15.6 market, has seen an annual growth of hospitals across 400+ locations in
mn round in health about 25 per cent in the last few years India.
and is doubling every three years.
insurance startup Plum Group health insurance products cover "Health insurance coverage in India is

Tiger Global led a $15.6 million about 90 million Indians. They are extremely low, as many people believe
buying health insurance is not just
investment round in group health expected to cover more than 500
complex and cumbersome, but also
insurance company Plum. million Indians by the end of this unaffordable. With ever-rising medical
Previous investors Sequoia Capital decade. and healthcare costs, Navi's
India's Surge, Tanglin Venture Partners, Plum, founded by Poddar and Saurabh subscription-based option for buying
Incubate Fund and Gemba Capital also Arora in 2019, aims to accelerate health insurance will help to make this
participated in the Series A round. The adoption of health insurance in India by important insurance cover more

The Insurance Times, June 2021 13