Coverfox Targets Digitally Active Professionals

Founded in 2013, Coverfox is a new-age insurance portal that allows a user to easily compare and buy policies from a range of products from all top insurance brands in one go. Using its proprietary technology and algorithm-based platform, users can compare and choose from a range of insurance plans across insurance companies, understand key features and buy policies instantly and safely. Coverfox's co-founder and CEO Varun Dua spoke to BW Businessworld about his online platform and the insurance sector.

Excerpts:

Why would a customer choose Coverfox?
Unlike most of the popular players in the space, we are not a web aggregator but an IRDAI (Insurance regulator of India) licensed broker that works on a standard commission from all insurance companies. This allows us to be neutral and unbiased. It also gives us the authority and qualification to advise you on your insurance decisions. We root for our customers and strongly believe that we can be successful if our customers are truly delighted by their engagement with Coverfox.

Coverfox has raised $14 million in three rounds of funding. What was your utilisation rate and where?
We have received three rounds of funding till date. The first round of funding was for $2 million from Accel India and SAIF and a second round of $12 million from Accel US, Accel India and SAIF. Recently Narayan Murthy's Catamaran ventures invested an undisclosed amount in the company as well.

The funding has been utilized on improving our technology further, brand building through mass media advertising, bringing on board new insurance products, and scaling up customer assistance unit. We are also trying to build a network to enable quicker insurance issuance for the used car market both individually and via used car dealers. We are constantly innovating and experimenting with technology to add value to consumer experience and make the platform quicker and convenient to use.

What has been your growth rate?
We continue to see 30-35 per cent growth month on month. Currently we are auto focused. Sixty per cent of the portfolio is auto and health is a majority chunk of the rest of the 40 per cent. We are the second largest online auto insurance player and aim to be the largest in the next months. Currently we operate at over 2 times the efficiency of all the other online players. Currently we have team of 270 and expect to be 450 strong by the next 2 quarters.

Merely four per cent of India's population is insured. How do you see your prospect?
As per a Boston Consulting group and Google India report, by 2020, 3 in every 4 insurance policies sold will be impacted by digital channels at either pre-purchase stage, purchase or renewal stages. The report also state that insurance sales from online channels will touch Rs 15,000 crore by 2020, with overall internet influenced sales at Rs 300,000-400,000 crore.
Coverfox talks to young professionals who are increasingly facing up to risk as a necessity for growth. Our targets are those working professionals who are almost completely digital native.

Most people do not understand the nuances of insurance. How are you going to enable your end customer?
At Coverfox we understand that the process of buying and understanding insurance is tedious and even intimidating to most, thus people procrastinate buying it. So by making it simple to understand and an easy and quick process, we believe we help people make a practical investment decision.

Complaint redressal is a huge concern for the buyers. How will you address it?
Our IRDAI licensed officials’ handholds and help people through the tedious claims process. We have dedicated toll free numbers for different insurance type where one can reach us around the clock. In case of a dis-satisfactory service you can also email us on various addresses provided on our website.

What are your future plans?
We are the second largest online auto insurance player and aim to be the largest in the next few months. The company is "on course" to book Rs 200 crore worth of premiums in FY17. In the next three years we plan to scale up our business and target to book Rs 1,000 crore worth of premiums from Rs 100 crore. We sell about 8,000 to 10,000 policies a month, and are seeing a steady growth of about 20 per cent month-on-month in sales.