Watch: Plum CEO on making health insurance affordable

Group health insurance provider Plum Benefits has three primary goals. It aims to make corporate health insurance accessible, affordable, and usable for employers and employees alike. 

Healthcare costs in India are at an all-time high with associated inflation galloping two to three times over the country’s overall inflation, Plum co-founder and CEO Abhishek Poddar told TechCircle in an interview. 

Events such as the Covid-19 pandemic are accelerating the trend, as it wreaks havoc on lives and pockets alike. Accordingly, it has increased awareness and penetration of health insurance among general population.  

But with generally unaffordable health insurance for a populace with low per capita income, Plum decided to enter the space and create a business comprising of employer, employee, and various insurance partners. It is currently building deep application programming interfaces (API) integrations with insurers such as ICICI Lombard, Care Health, Star Health and New India Assurance, and using data sciences to assess the risks the right way. 

Product pricing at Plum is highly customisable and dependent on almost 30 parameters, Poddar said. Its adoption curve has been typical of new age tech companies, with startups lining up as clients in the initial days post-launch. 

About 75% of Plum's current clients so far are referrals from pre-existing clients, and 80% of the overall set are first time buyers. In the interview, Poddar sheds further light on the company’s growth so far, as it targets to insure 10 million individuals by 2025, a 100X jump from the current tally. 

Founded by Poddar and Saurabh Arora in 2019, the Sequoia Capital backed startup raised $15.6 million (Rs 113 crore) in May this year in a Series A funding round led by alternative investment firm Tiger Global Management. 

Poddar, a Stanford University alumnus, has worked with Google and McKinsey, and built technology companies. Arora led product and engineering teams at Freshworks, and had previously built Airwoot which was acquired by Freshworks.