Polaris to invest Rs 100 cr in insurance centre

Chennai-based Polaris Software Lab, a financial technology company, is setting up a centre of excellence for insurance near Chennai with an investment of around Rs 100 crore.

The centre would develop new solutions and service company’s insurance clients.

Speaking to reporters after laying the foundation stone for the centre at Navalur, 25 km from Chennai, Arun Jain, founder and CEO, Polaris, said the centre would help the company strengthen the insurance business, which contributed Rs 95 crore to the turnover last year. The company has set a target of Rs 250 crore over the next three years from this segment.

 The company invested Rs 400 crore over the last years to develop financial technology products, he added.

The new facility would be ready in the next 18 months and house 2,500 people. The investment would be funded through internal accruals. The company would offer readymade products for insurance companies, which in turn would accelerate customer experience, said Jain.

Polaris has over 23 insurance companies as clients across the globe including AIG, New York Life, ICICI Prudential, Kiln, and IDBI Fortis.

Meanwhile, the company is planning to enter 40 countries in the next 4-5 years for which it is likely to invest Rs 10-15 crore. In 2009-10, it plans to enter Vietnam, Egypt and Chillie.

He said they were also also open for acquiring new companies in these markets.

The information technology would help the insurance industry increase penetration “which is currently very low” in the country, said B D Banerjee, member, consultative committee, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority.

In his special address at the stone laying ceremony, he said life insurance penetration in the country was just 3.6 per cent of the GDP and general insurance 0.8 per cent. “One of the key challenges is reaching out to the people and this can be addressed with the help of IT. In the current scenario the financial market cannot operate without the help of technology,” he said, adding IT companies should come out with a solution not only to increase the penetration but also control frauds.