After PolicyBazaar, PhonePe gets insurance broking license from IRDA

PhonePe, a digital payments company, has been issued an insurance broking license by India's Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI). It can now distribute insurance products from all insurance firms in India thanks to its new 'Direct Broking' license, according to the company.

The startup entered the insurtech space in 2020 with a limited insurance 'corporate agent' license that limited the company to three insurance firms per category.

With the new broking license, PhonePe will be able to offer customized product recommendations to its 300 million+ users, as well as a far broader range of insurance products to Indian consumers.

Speaking on the development, Gunjan Ghai, Vice President & Head of Insurance at PhonePe said, “This license is a big milestone in our insurance journey. PhonePe is India’s fastest growing insurtech and this move to broking will give us further momentum and accelerate our growth in this space. We are building a robust, full-service platform for our deeply engaged customer base through innovative products in partnership with high-quality insurers. This move will lead us closer to our goal of becoming a one-stop destination for all the insurance needs of our customers.”

With over 300 million registered users, the platform is India's top digital payment platform. Users can use PhonePe to send and receive money, recharge mobile phones, DTH, and data cards, pay for goods and services, acquire gold, and invest.

PhonePe has dispatched contributions in broad protection, term protection, and medical coverage since entering the protection segment as a corporate specialist in January 2020. The firm stated that the overwhelming response to its initial protection item deliveries from customers prompted it to apply for an Insurance Broking license so that it could quickly expand its protection offering for customers.

“We have the sole consumer strategy – send money, spend money, manage money and grow money. Send and spend is all that we have achieved so far, that habit has been set. Now, users who have adapted to the platform are ready to manage and grow their money,” Chief Technology officer Rahul Chari had said.

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).

In June, PolicyBazaar received the approval from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) to undertake insurance broking in its online platform. Medici, a Vietnamese health IT startup, received an insurance broker license from the Vietnam Ministry of Finance in July. Recently, PayNearby had also received a broking license from India's Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI).

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