A young startup is changing the rules of the game in India’s insurance market

Photo credit: Niranjan

‘Fear’ – that’s the F word of insurance in India.

Fear, insecurity, and ignorance is what the insurance industry has thrived on for the longest time. Even after buying a policy, a customer is left feeling uneasy. Could the premium have cost less? Was there some fine print he missed? Will settling a claim be easy?

But here’s what. Buying insurance can be convenient, informative, transparent, and fast. And that makes for an entirely different F word – fun!

That was the exact idea when serial entrepreneurs Varun Dua and Devendra Rane set up insurance portal Coverfox in 2013, hoping to change the archaic ways of the insurance industry in India. You will know what they mean if you catch their humor-laced ads on TV.

The Mumbai-based insurance broking firm allows a user to compare policies from top insurance brands in one go and then buy a policy online.

Coverfox founders Devendra Rane and Varun Dua

Offering over 100 products and with 25 insurers on board, it is doing brisk business in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune, Lucknow, Chennai, and Hyderabad. The company settles 150 to 200 claims a month and has sold around 120,000 policies to date.

“Coverfox was founded with a clear goal – making insurance simple and convenient,” says Varun, a graduate of the Mudra Institute of Communications, in Ahmedabad. “We are already doing half the business of our competitors.”

The firm has found backing from Accel India, SAIF, and Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures.

A car insurance case

Photo credit: Pixabay.

I had just renewed my car insurance last month (after two companies called me on the phone with their quotes), but I decided to compare it with Coverfox anyway.

How to win

A paradigm shift to online