Although India has a huge population of 1.39 Billion as of 2021 and stands as the second populous country in the world, a majority of the population does not hold any health insurance coverage.
With the decentralized method in the healthcare sector in India, insurance is optional, as per statistics around 500 million people were insured in the fiscal year 2020.
The start-up Plum plans to build a strong road ahead for affordable and easy solutions for companies and organizations to provide health insurance to their employees. The company raised $15.6 million in Series A funding to propel the initiative.
The leading investor Tiger Global led the new funding round, along with existing investors Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Tanglin Venture Partners, and Incubate Fund.
The company follows a B2B2C model and offers health insurance coverage. The company’s pricing is as low as $1 per month per employee.
The startup takes pride as it built the initiative from scratch in addition to getting insurance companies on board. The company offers coverage on dental and pre-existing conditions.
As partners, Plum has Care Health, ICICI Lombard, New India Assurance, and Star Health.
Since there are fewer players in this segment that engages with businesses at an affordable price and providing flexibility, the startup, therefore, is enticing many firms to partner with them.
The company offers benefits like coverage extension to self and to add family members. It is also luring to customers as the company lets the customers pay every month. Another distinguishing factor of Plum is the speed, it takes less than one hour to sign up with plum.
The fintech firm Razorpay partnered with Plum offering the client’s insurance coverage option with a one-minute sign-up with the three-click feature. The company envisions to cover over 10 million people in India by 2025 and spread out to international markets. Due to the uncertainties, more businesses are looking for insurance coverage for their employees as it helps the companies to keep the employees safe.
As per research, the Indian Health Insurance Market is on the rise at a CAGR of 19% over the next 5 years. 2021 is expected to boost the health insurance sector in India with new schemes and trends that help people tackle unprecedented situations. Innovative products in 2021 like e-KYC that cuts the traditional approach and simplifies the insurance signup via digital platforms, new products specifically for Covid-19 start for as low as INR 100, On-demand insurance which creates convenience for the user to pay when required will benefit the people.