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According to various industry reports, the Indian insurance sector is valued at a massive $280 billion, but its contribution to the country’s GDP remains abysmally low at 4%. The sector is still waiting for a disruption, even as a host of startups are leveraging technology to resolve issues like claim rejections, frauds and miss-selling. New Delhi-based InsurTech Insurance Samadhan (InSa) is among the few startups that are using technology to resolve insurance-related complaints and claims.

Over the last few years, consumer complaints are rising even as claim registrations in both life and non-life segments rise due to various reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic.  

Deepak Bhuvneshwari Uniyal, Co-founder, Insurance Samadhan (InSa), said,

“The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has reported that claims and complaint registrations grew from Rs 60 lakhs in February 2020 to Rs 3.8 crore in December the same year on our platform. Despite the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, insurance sales are expected to grow between 14-15% and so would complaints and claims.” 

IRDAI, the country’s insurance regulator, has limited resources and hence is unable to act on every complaint it receives. InSa pitches in by using its proprietary technology-based tools to resolve consumer complaints. 

Founded in 2017 by Deepak, Shilpa Arora, Shailesh Kumar, and Sanjay Aggarwal, InSa allows insurance policyholders to file complaints on miss-selling, frauds, or claim rejections in life, health, and general insurance products. The platform filters the complaints on the basis of parameters executed by artificial intelligence/machine learning tools and selects only genuine complaints or claims. In the next step, it presents them before respective insurance companies, regulators, ombudsman and courts as required. The founders of the startup have productised their 45+ years of experience in the industry. Since its inception, the startup has successfully resolved over 14,000 claims and complaints. 

Deepak said that insurance claims are rejected for various reasons, including wrong entry of personal data while buying policies, non-disclosure of medical history, non-payment of premiums, and forged documents. The IRDAI is inundated with lakhs of consumer complaints every year, ranging from miss-selling policies to undue claim rejections every year. As per the latest data available, the regulator received over 4 lakh complaints in 2018-19. 

“India’s insurance industry is growing, and so are consumer-related issues. Technology backed by AI and ML could solve many issues faced by the insurance sector that is estimated to be worth $100 billion and is growing month-on-month,” says Deepak, while adding that the company is currently in talks with investors to raise Rs 10 crore in pre-Series A by May 2021. He said that the funds would be utilised in brand-building activities, expanding the operations, building its tech stack, and realising its business targets. 

Last year, the startup raised funds from a clutch of investors in a seed round led by Venture Catalysts, India’s largest integrated incubator. The company’s differentiating factor is that it doesn’t sell any insurance or financial product like other insurance platforms, but acts as a bridge between insurance companies and their customers, thereby adding value to the entire ecosystem. InSa has the first-mover advantage, even as some startups have emerged in the same space over the last two years.

The scope for a company like InSa is enormous. IRDAI reports that the value of financial claims in the grievances registered with the insurance regulator in the past 10 years amount to $11.2 billion, which means the actual size is $100 billion and is rising faster than industry penetration.

“There is a massive opportunity for a platform like us. If IRDAI reports are to be believed, for each complaint registered in India, at least 10 more cases go unreported due to a lack of awareness. The regulator works very actively towards its mission of protecting the interests of the insurance policyholders.”

Deepak said and added that since its inception, InSa had resolved over 14,000+ complaints and claims. InSa is primarily success fee-based, which means they take their fee only after the customer’s grievance is resolved and the money is credited to their account, that itself talks volumes about the team’s confidence. 

Insurance Samadhan represents aggrieved customers from an individual policyholder to a microfinance company, hospital, or any corporate.