Exclusive: Fosun-backed fintech startup Kissht gets IRDAI licence to offer insurance

OnEMI Technology Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which runs digital lending startup Kissht, has received a corporate agency licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) to offer insurance products, a top company executive told TechCircle.

The company has partnered with HDFC Life Insurance Co., Aditya Birla Health Insurance Co. Ltd, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Co. and GoDigit to offer health and life insurance products via its retail merchants and franchisees across India. It has partnered with about 10,000 retail merchants and more than 3,000 franchisees.

“Insurance is the next logical move for us to help our customers not only achieve quick affordable finance but also have a great sense of personal security. The plan, from purchase to claim, will be completely integrated into our online platform, which customers are already familiar with,” said Krishnan Vishwanathan, chief executive officer and co-founder, Kissht.

Ranvir Singh, director and co-founder, Kissht, said the company's focus in the coming year would be to create more avenues for customers to avail completely digital, paper-less solutions.

Founded in 2015 by Vishwanathan, Kissht provides collateral-free loans for products such as mobiles, laptops, jewellery, furniture and electronic gadgets. Customers can repay through equated monthly instalments, using the Kissht EMI card. The startup lends through a captive non-banking financial company.

It had set up its in-house NBFC in January 2018. The NBFC also caters to customers outside of its existing merchant partners, Vishwanathan told TechCircle last year. The company is also in the process of launching its own credit cards, he said.

Kissht claims it gets 60,000-70,000 new customers every month and disburses 10,000-12,000 loans with an average business growth of 30-40% per month.

A majority of its customers are younger than 30 years and earn between Rs 10,000 and Rs 45,000 per month. Most customers take loans for consumer durables, with home furnishing, kitchen appliances, medical and educational requirements among other popular categories.

Kissht reaches customers through about 50 portals and 3,500 offline points of sale. Its partners include CaratLane, Wonderchef, Prestige, Blue Star, Exide, Standard Chartered, SBI Cards and Intex.

In September last year, the company raised $30 million (Rs 195 crore) in Series C funding from investors led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India and Sistema Asia Fund. Existing investors Fosun RZ Capital, Ventureast and Endiya Partners also participated in the round.

Prior to that, it had secured $10 million (Rs 67 crore) from investors led by China's Fosun in November 2017 and $2 million from Endiya and Ventureast in the same year.