PolicyBazaar forms technology arm Zphin for BFSI digital solutions

Insurance product aggregator PolicyBazaar has formed a new subsidiary Zphin to foray into providing technology solutions for banking, financial services and insurance players (BSFI).

Although the plans to expand operations are yet to be finalised, PolicyBazaar is looking at creating a new brand for these services, a company spokesperson told TechCircle.

The Delhi-based firm will combine its expertise in digital distribution and automation with banking and insurance products. The company currently provides such solutions to PNB Metlife and Home Credit, the spokesperson added.

In January, PolicyBazaar had roped in Rahul Agarwal and Jayant Chauhan as chief technology officer and chief product officer to strengthen its top management team. While Agarwal was with Lava Mobile, Chauhan had worked with Airtel and Zomato.

ETechAces Marketing and Consulting, which owns PolicyBazaar, was formed in 2008 by Yashish Dahiya and Alok Bansal. The aggregator claims to be the single largest distributor of insurance products with 400,000 policies sold every month, accounting for 25% of the country’s life cover.

In 2018, PolicyBazaar had entered the healthcare technology and services segment in addition to the existing offerings such as life, general, automobile, corporate, travel and home insurance products.

In May, ETechAces had raised $150 million growth funding from Japan-based SoftBank, Info Edge and True North. The total capital raised by the company was $300 million till that date.

Earlier this month, Chinese firm Tencent had reportedly invested $130-150 million for 7-10% stake in ETechAces. 

The government had approved 100% foreign direct investment in insurance intermediaries from 49% earlier in continuation with the Union Budget 2019-20 announcement.

PolicyBazaar had reported a revenue of Rs 358.8 crore in the financial year 2017-18, as per an exchange filing from Info Edge, one of its investors. The topline was higher from Rs 212.9 crore from the year-ago period.