IRDAI grants PhonePe a direct insurance broking licence.

 

Image Credit: PhonePe

The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India has granted Fintech upstart PhonePe an insurance broking licence (IRDAI). PhonePe entered the insurtech industry in 2020 with a limited insurance corporate agent licence, allowing them to work with only three insurance firms per category.

PhonePe may now market insurance products from all insurance firms in India thanks to its new "direct broking" licence. It will also enable the business to provide Indian clients with personalised product suggestions and a diverse array of insurance products.

PhonePe is a digital payments network that allows users to send and receive money, recharge mobile phones, DTH, data cards, pay in stores, pay utility bills, and more. It was founded in 2015 by Sameer Nigam, a Burzin Engineer, and Rahul Chari. PhonePe, which was acquired by Flipkart in 2016, is one of India's most popular UPI platforms, with a market share of 47.61 per cent.

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In 2017, the payment platform expanded its app to include financial services such as gold purchases, investments, and mutual funds.

PhonePe also diversified into the insurance industry as a "corporate agent" in early 2020, expanding its offers to include general insurance, term insurance, and health insurance.

According to the firm, its insurance offering garnered millions of responses, prompting it to apply for an insurance broking licence.

This licence is a huge milestone in our insurance journey, Gunjan Ghai, vice president and head of insurance at PhonePe, said in response to the news. PhonePe is India's fastest-growing insurtech, and our expansion into broking will help us gain even more traction and drive our growth. Through new products and partnerships with high-quality insurers, we are establishing a powerful, full-service platform for our deeply engaged customer base.

The company also introduced its account aggregator platform earlier this month, which allows for the free and fast interchange of financial data between financial information users (FIUs) and financial information providers (FIPs) with consumer authorization.

PhonePe is also looking to get into the stockbroking business. It gained board approval in August 2021 to establish a mutual fund or asset management company (AMC).

(Source: Inc42)