Flipkart aims to make life insurance more accessible to Indians

The Walmart-owned e-commerce firm has partnered with Aegon Life Insurance to offer paperless and quick-access life insurance policy

In an attempt to go deeper into the Indian financial services market, Walmart-owned e-commerce platform Flipkart has joined hands with Aegon Life Insurance, a pioneer of digital insurance in India, to sell comprehensive insurance solutions to its customers. With this offering, Flipkart said it aims to make life insurance more accessible to Indians living in the metro and non-metro cities, servicing India and Bharat alike.

An instant digital policy with a sum assured of up to 10 lakh, will be available to consumers from March 2020. With instant life insurance cover through a digital policy as its core value proposition, Flipkart said such policies do not require medical tests or paperwork, making it completely hassle-free.
 

“We are committed to developing solutions that will help bridge the gap between India and Bharat, and we are confident that the easy-access insurance policy will be one of the catalysts to power this transition,” said Ranjith Boyanapalli, Head - Fintech and Payments Group at Flipkart. “With this product, we want to make innovative and trustworthy financial products available at the customer’s fingertips and provide them with a hassle-free experience.”

Life insurance has the second-highest penetration amongst all types of insurance available in the country. One of the major problems that the insurance industry faces today is the notion that it is expensive and cumbersome to buy, followed by issues around long and rigid tenures and mis-selling. With this product, Flipkart and Aegon Life said they aim to solve these issues and make life insurance available to customers at the click of a button in a convenient and transparent manner.

The Life Insurance policies on Flipkart have varied offerings, with sums assured ranging from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 10 lakh and premiums starting from Rs 129 for Rs 1 lakh sum insured. The policies will be available to the existing customers of Flipkart between the ages of 18 and 65.

“This (Flipkart partnership) is one of our biggest strategic associations till date and it is in line with our strategy of selling insurance direct-to-customer (D2C),” said Satishwar Balakrishnan, CFO and Principal Officer, Aegon Life Insurance. “With more and more Indians getting used to purchasing online, selling insurance services has a huge scope and an e-commerce platform such as Flipkart has a unique appeal with customers. This partnership will help us expand the reach for our term insurance solutions Pan India.”

The overall transaction value in the Indian Fintech market is estimated to jump from approximately $66.1 billion in 2019 to $137.8 billion in 2023, growing at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 20.18 per cent, according to a report by PwC and industry body Assocham. Emerging markets are leading the way with both China and India at 87 per cent fintech adoption rate in 2019, which is significantly higher than the global average rate of 64 per cent, according to EY’s Global FinTech Adoption Index 2019.