Page 24 - Banking Finance November 2020

PRESS RELEASE

Fastest scale-up in insurance distribution: PhonePe sells 5 lakh

policies in just 5 months

PhonePe, India’s leading digital payments platform, today announced that it has sold over 5 lakh insurance policies on its
platform during the period April - August 2020. This makes PhonePe the fastest-growing insure-tech distributor in India
within just 9 months of the Insurance category going live on the PhonePe app.
PhonePe forayed into the insurance segment in January this year and was the first digital payment platform to launch
international travel insurance for business & leisure travellers. Since April, it has launched 5 more insurance products which
include COVID-19 Insurance, Domestic Travel Insurance, Hospital Daily Cash, Dengue & Malaria Insurance, Personal Accident
Cover in addition to International Travel Insurance.
The short span of time within which these products were launched is significant considering the industry usually takes a few
months to develop and launch similar products. What is also noteworthy is that PhonePe has timed its products based on
market needs and has also partnered with leading insurers to offer customized products for its vast registered user base
exceeding 23 crores. PhonePe launched a few cost-effective insurance products for COVID-19 in April & May when the
pandemic was seeing a rapid spread across the country. With the lockdown ending and domestic travel gradually starting
across the country in June, the company launched a comprehensive, industry-first domestic multi-trip insurance cover at
just INR 499 for all domestic trips for a year. PhonePe soon launched sachet-based insurance products in July beginning with
Hospital Daily Cash to enable customers to get an assured amount if they are hospitalized due to injury or illnesses including
COVID-19. Keeping the upcoming rainy season in mind which sees a huge number of cases of mosquito-borne diseases
across the country, it launched Dengue & Malaria Insurance in July.
The PhonePe app has seen insurance purchases from over 15,000 pin codes covering tier-1, 2, 3 and beyond reflecting the
deep penetration of its platform and tremendous customer response to its offerings. Over 70% of PhonePe’s users come
from tier- 2 and 3 cities with many users buying insurance for the first time. The leading tier-2 and tier-3 cities for insurance
sales on PhonePe are Visakhapatnam, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, Nashik, Vijayawada and Aurangabad.
Commenting on the milestone, Hemant Gala, VP Financial Services & Payments, PhonePe said, “We are delighted to have
achieved the 5 lakh insurance policies sold milestone on PhonePe within a short span of 5 months. This is by far the fastest
scale-up seen in the insurtech industry. We are thankful to our partners who have worked closely with us to innovate and
co-create affordable products for our customers to cater to their specific needs. Customers continue to repose their trust
in PhonePe as they find buying insurance on our platform affordable, simple to understand and easy. This is in line with our
goal to be a one-stop destination for all insurance needs of our customers. We are in talks with multiple insurers and have
many new products in the pipeline which will be launched in the coming months.”

HUDCO Makes Dividend Payout to MoRD

The Hon’ble Union Minister of Rural Development, Shri
Narendra Singh Tomar, was presented the final dividend
cheque of Rs.97.52 crore for the year 2019-20, by Shri M.
Nagaraj, Director (Corporate Planning) HUDCO. Present on the
occasion were Shri Nagendra Nath Sinha, Secretary MoRD,
Shri D. Guhan, Director (Finance) HUDCO and other senior
officials. The Ministry of Rural Development with a 20.73%
share holding has received a total dividend of Rs. 128.65 crore.

In its Golden Jubilee year, HUDCO has made an all-time high
dividend payout of 31% amounting to Rs 620.59 crore for the
year 2019-20. HUDCO also paid dividend of Rs. 428.68 crore
to Ministry of Housing and Urban Affair (MoHUA), and Rs.
63.26 core to public shareholders.

24 | 2020 | NOVEMBER | BANKING FINANCE