Policybazaar India

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Policybazaar.com
Type Private
Industry Finance
Founded 2008
Founder(s) Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal
Headquarters Gurgaon, India
Website policybazaar.com

Policybazaar is an Indian online life insurance and general insurance comparison portal. [1]

Policybazaar.com is today India’s most prominent[citation needed] online life and general insurance aggregation. Policybazaar.com specializes in enabling the consumer to make a comparative analysis of the insurance products on the basis of price, quality and key benefits.However, you can only see the comparative analysis once you register your contact number with the website. The customer contact numbers acquired by Policybazaar are sold to various insurance seller who in turn work with thousands of aggressive telemarketers.

History

Policybazaar, a Gurgaon based start-up, offers buyers the opportunity to compare and pick up from a basket of insurance policies.

Established in the latter part of 2008, the e-commerce firm plans to double its revenues by the end of this fiscal from the current level of 12.5 crore. "There is immense potential in insurance in India as current penetration is really low," said Yashish Dahiya, co-founder and CEO of the firm.[citation needed] Current estimates indicate that just four out of every 100 Indians hold a life insurance policy.

Dahiya set up Policybazaar with Avaneesh Nirjar and Alok Bansal - all three first generation entrepreneurs[citation needed] - to make insurance purchase easy in the country.[citation needed] Prior to setting up the company, they chased their dreams in the corporate world and worked in companies including First Europa, a global online insurance broker and ebookers Plc, a travel business.[citation needed] "When I set up ebookers Plc, a travel business which employed 2,000 people across 13 countries in Europe, it was almost an entrepreneurial project," said Dahiya.[citation needed]

The trigger to set up the insurance portal was the low penetration, which in turn throws up significant opportunities.[citation needed] Also, the profit margins in setting up an insurance portal are quite high [citation needed] as more people are now looking to buy risk cover at discounted rates. Typically discounts for customers are drawn from lower processing costs. Online automated loan and insurance processing is 70% cheaper than selling through a physical bank branch - these cost savings are shared with the customer.[2]

Business model Policybazaar.com offers a comparison of various insurance policies and loans based on price, quality and key benefits on the website. It has 5 million registered users, who typically spend about 2-3 minutes on the website, researching financial products such as loans and insurance options. They search through 2-3 pages per visit. Dahiya claims that the site has recorded a high of 5 million visitors in March, 2011.

Currently, the website offers information to users to help them make informed decisions and features content in various forms such as top five features of a product, best sellers and conversion rates. On what makes the site unique compared to other insurance and financial product research and comparison websites, Dahiya said, “Our content is unique. I believe they are not doing ROI-based comparisons. We see ourselves as a vertical search engine for insurance, and are trying to replicate Google’s business. We are starting to take consumer feedback in terms of what they think of different products through reviews. It is also investing in the call centre that supports the website and is an interim requirement. [3]

Competition

A lot of companies are have entered the business and are providing stiff competition to the first mover. However, the overall market is growing significantly even though companies like Zibika.com, Easypolicy.com, Insuring India, PolicyX.com, etc. are offering similar services.

Funding

Intel Capital has invested Rs. 30 crore in the company, while Info Edge has also participated, investing Rs. 10 crore. Following this investment which is the company’s last round of funding prior to an IPO which they’re targeting in the next 3-4 years, the shareholding is split almost equally between the promoters, Info Edge and Intel Capital. This is the first Info Edge backed company to raise additional funding from an external investor. [4]

Present and future

The company had a headcount of around 800 person’s as on August 05, 2012 and is working on doubling its workforce in the near future. It has 5 million registered users who are interested in finding out information related to financial products such as loans and insurance options. The users search through 2-3 pages per visit on an average. The company claims to have recorded 6 million visitors in jan, 2012.[5] Policybazaar has awarded its creative mandate to Mudra (North and East). The size of the business is estimated to be Rs 22 crore although the PnL is negative consistently since the start of company. The development is the result of a multi-agency pitch process that saw the participation of eight agencies. [6]

References

  1. ↑ http://www.crunchbase.com/company/policybazaar
  2. ↑ http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/india-emerging/policybazaar-gurgaon-based-start-up-offers-buyers-opportunity-to-compare-and-choose-insurance-policies/articleshow/9059348.cms
  3. ↑ http://in.reuters.com/article/2011/04/22/idINIndia-56520120110422
  4. ↑ http://www.medianama.com/2011/04/223-policybazaar-raises-9-million-from-intel-capital-info-edge/
  5. ↑ http://www.vccircle.com/500/news/policybazaarcom-raises-rs-10cr-from-info-edge-to-raise-rs-30cr-more%3Cbr%3E
  6. ↑ http://www.afaqs.com/news/story.html?sid=31212

External links

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