Surjendu Kuila, Founder -; CEO, Zopper

21 Feb 2022 , 02:00 PM

In an interaction with Mamta Maity, indiainfoline.com, Mr. Surjendu Kuila Founder & CEO Zopper said “the product offering depends on the ecosystem partners’ underlying customer profile. We operate across the entire product range – Motor, Life, Health and Assurance in corporate solutions and lifestyle protection.”

What was the objective behind the launch of the brand Zopper?

Zopper is the largest embedded insurtech player in India. The objective was to increase insurance penetration of the country by embedding the right insurance product as part of a very different parent product journey. As no one wakes up in the morning to buy insurance, embedded insurance is the only way to protect the “New To Insurance” segment of the population.

How do you define embedded insurance?

Embedded Insurance is the process of abstracting insurance functionality into technology so that any third-party product or service provider, as well as any developer in any industry, can seamlessly integrate innovative insurance solutions into their customer propositions and experiences, either as complementary add-ons to their core offerings or as new native components. Embedded insurance, to put it simply, is the packaging of insurance coverage within a product or service, which is supplied at the point of sale or service.

When purchasing a smartphone or an electronic device, for example, you have the choice of purchasing a screen protection plan or a device protection plan. Leading e-commerce enterprises and operators of popular mobile apps for ride-hailing, delivery, trip booking, payment, and other services, among others, are already offering these embedded insurance products online. Embedded insurance can be paid (in which case the client pays an additional amount toward the insurance premium while purchasing the core service/product) or free (in which case the insurance cover is included with each sale of the product or service).

What is driving customers to buy insurance online?

The spread of covid-19 have now driven a clear paradigm shift towards digitalization in the post-virus era. Indian consumers’ extensive use of digital platforms have pressed their preference to purchase insurance through them.

Digital Insurance Market, which is 3% in FY 22, would grow to 19% in FY 27. The following factors such as convenience, pricing, de-constructed product literature and personalized Insurance product offerings with competitive pricing would drive customers to buy insurance policies online.

The insurtech space seems to be the next big thing. There are a couple of players in the insurtech space that have similar offerings. How differently is Zopper operating?

Insurance Distribution war in India, would be won from the ecosystem partner’s lens. Any enterprise having a captive customer base is an ecosystem partner for us.

Today most of the distributors are bringing off-the-shelf solutions and products to consumers. That has resulted in worsening the customer experience as these solutions are retrofitted. What is required is a fresh thinking of customer journeys and distribution experiences. Zopper brings those customized solutions, adapter layers and deep integration with partner’s IT infrastructure.

Idea is to improve the insurance distribution experience and insurance buying journeys. Those can only be done when we look at the problem from a fresh outlook.

What are the products that you offer to your clients? Which segments you cater too?

The product offering depends on the ecosystem partners’ underlying customer profile. We operate across the entire product range – Motor, Life, Health and Assurance in corporate solutions and lifestyle protection. As these insurance products are embedded in parent product journeys, the average ticket size of these insurance products are below Rs1000 and are primarily termed as byte size or sachet size insurance products.

How is Zopper solving the insurance penetration problem in the country?

Zopper is in the space of Embedded Insurance.  Embedded Insurance is the process of abstracting insurance functionality into technology so that any third-party product or service provider can seamlessly integrate innovative insurance solutions into their customer propositions and experiences.

As no one wakes up in the morning to buy insurance, embedded insurance is the only way to protect the “New To Insurance” segment of the population and to also bring the “New to Insurance” segment of the population under the fold of insurance protection, thereby increasing insurance penetration.

What are your plans for expansion?

The Digital Insurance Market, which is 3% in FY 22, would grow to 19% in FY 27.  With the same vision, we plan to grow.

On the volume side In FY27, we have a solid well- crafted plan to deliver on $1.5 B of Gross Premium.

On the product side, we will expand our offerings into more and more bespoke products. By FY 24 we will start our global operations focusing on SEA and GCC.

How will the insurtech space evolve in the year 2022?

As customers are not owned by Insurtech players, Insurtech space has to solve the problems of Ecosystem Partners by creating deeper Embedded APIs across various industries. The deeper Insurtech players integrate with Partner’s core systems, the better the chance they have to create a simpler and seamless user journey. That is the key to expanding the category and that is how the space would evolve.