In a Series C fund raising, India’s online insurance portal Coverfox has secured $22 million. The current round of investment in the company has been led by IFC, a World Bank off-shoot and Transamerica.
Some of the existing stakeholders have also pitched in. Coverfox had in its previous fund-raising exercise, combined its Series A and B together and received $17 million from a clutch of investors. These included SAIF Partners and Accel, apart from Catamaran Ventures, the VC firm belonging to NR Narayana Murthy of Infosys fame.
Coverfox boasts of 35 insurers sitting on its platform offering over 150 different insurance products.
The online insurance portal wants to build on the momentum established, by pushing beyond the current geography and focus on certain niche markets like the rural segment and women insurers. Statistics reveals that those who buy insurance products hail from the cities and tier 2 and tier 3 towns still stand less exploited.
The passionate team at Coverfox is building Asia's best insure-tech platform to help end-users buy any policy without getting spammed by telecallers. The current fundraise is a validation of our vision. The money would be used to strengthen our product/technology capabilities. Further, a large portion of the investment would go into improving the user experience by going both horizontal and vertical into each insurance category. We are very happy to welcome IFC and Transamerica to our family,” Premanshu Singh, Chief Executive Officer Coverfox.com said in a statement.
The urban consumers are higher by 35% than their rural counterparts. Similarly, 40% more men than women seem to be insured. The current funding will be used by Coverfox to explore these segments in a focused manner in order to enhance their business.
The areas already being worked on, using technology, like the Coverdrive app for Android devices, will be further strengthened drawing college students, house-wives and unemployed youth into canvassing for insurance policies and earning their incentives.
Technology is applied on the site also when customers visit in search of information on the better policies in the areas of health and life insurance. Once can source 4-wheeler, 2-wheeler and travel insurance products from different insurance providers also on Coverfox.
“India has one of the most underpenetrated insurance markets, with low penetration rates for women and rural populations. By investing in Coverfox, IFC is giving a push to the country's digitization agenda by leveraging technology to deliver insurance products to customers outside metros and to women who are currently underserved,” said Jun Zhang, IFC Country Head for India.