Insurance tech start-up Bima Mandi intends to serve more than 40 lakh rural customers across 125 districts and 1,000 villages in the next 10 years.

The company is offering financial products in major vernacular languages across rural India to enable accessibility to more people, the company said in a statement.

“The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) pegs the overall insurance cover levels for the country at 0.8 per cent or ₹1.89-lakh crore. For rural areas, the biggest piece of this pie is crop insurance, at ₹32,000 crore. We will capitalise in this area and aim to build a ₹10,000-crore business here in the next 10 years,” Prashant Karulkar, Director at Bima Mandi, said.

“Our InsurTech aims to address the savings and financial protection needs of the rural populace,” Karulkar added.

Bima Mandi was started by entrepreneurs Prashant Karulkar and Anil Sachidanand to provide insurance services in rural India.

“Bima Mandi will leverage ongoing digital village programmes, village improvement programmes and the Atmanirbhar India programme. It will work closely with government agencies to ensure last-mile connectivity with its targeted rural markets,” Anil Sachidanand, the ideator and co-mentor for Bima Mandi, said.

The current Covid-19 crisis has highlighted the need for insurance and financial protection in both urban and rural regions. It is the most neglected market which needs maximum security coverage through insurance.

Published on June 26, 2020

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