RenewBuy raises additional equity funding from responsAbility

Gurugram, India / Zurich, Switzerland 13 January 2022 — responsAbility, the Swiss asset manager focusing on impact investing, announced that a fund, managed by responsAbility has participated in the USD 60 million Series C of RenewBuy, one of the fastest growing insurtech companies in India. RenewBuy, through its subsidiary D2C Insurance Broking Private Limited, leverages its nationwide network of digitally enabled point of sale person (POSP) insurance advisors to distribute motor, health, and life insurance to customers in Tier 1, Tier 2, and smaller cities. The proceeds from the fundraise will be deployed to boost product and geographical expansions, and to reach millions of uninsured and under-insured Indian customers.

India has historically struggled with the imbalance between a strong need for insurance and a weak supply which left those living outside the largest cities underserved. Tier 2 and smaller cities remained underserved, due to the traditional branch-led model, lack of information, and, in many cases, mis-selling of insurance products. Though insurance penetration has inched up over the years, it remains relatively low at 4.2% of GDP.

RenewBuy was started to mitigate the demand-supply gap for insurance in India, especially in the smaller towns and cities. It equips a trusted network of digitally enabled, trained, and certified POSP insurance advisors with a mobile app which allows them to offer a broad range of health, life, and motor insurance products. The entire experience is natively digital and therefore paperless and contactless, with policies issued instantly. The combination of complete digital underwriting experience, with the human touch that is still needed to sell insurance in emerging markets, especially in Tier 2 and smaller cities enabled the company to scale quickly.

responsAbility is excited about the strong social impact inherent in RenewBuy’s business model, which extended insurance coverage to more than 3 million under-served and lower income customers in 750 cities and towns and created valuable professional full-time and part-time jobs for POSP agents.

Balachander Sekhar, CEO RenewBuy Group said, “RenewBuy’s digital led insurance advisor model has enormously helped in insurance outreach in the smaller towns and cities, along with the metro cities in the last six years. Despite our increased outreach in Tier 2/3 cities and beyond, our digital distribution model has been capital efficient and highly profitable. We have reached out to those towns and cities where the traditional insurance model is still unable to reach. Around 65% of our current revenues are coming from the Tier 2 and 3 cities, while the business in Tier 1 cities is also growing. The capital raised will be used for accelerating our digital infrastructure with newer innovations and integrations. We are currently serving 3 million plus consumers, across 750 plus cities through our network of 60,000 plus insurance POSP advisors, which is expected to increase to 25 million customers in the coming few years.”

Volodymyr Tsapko, Head of responsAbility’s Financial Inclusion Private Equity, said: “As a firm with two decades of experience in financial inclusion investing, we are thrilled and honored to support RenewBuy in its mission to distribute insurance products to the under-served Indian population. Those hundreds of millions in the missing middle that do not enjoy free access to health insurance programs for low-income people like Ayushman Bharat will benefit from easier access to life, health, and other insurance products.”

Henning Haugerudbraaten, Principal with responsAbility's Financial Inclusion Private Equity and Country Manager Thailand, added: “Since our first interaction with the founders in 2017, we have been impressed with their clear vision, experience, and their capacity to execute their ambitious growth plans. We look forward to working with them as they progress on their mission of making insurance simple and accessible to all”. About RenewBuy Founded in 2015 by Balachander Sekhar and Indraneel Chatterjee, RenewBuy is a disruptive insurtech player providing choice and convenience to customers buying health, life and motor Insurance products, delivered through a trusted network of POSP advisors. The company now has about 60,000 POSP insurance advisors and has insured more than 3 million customers across 750 cities and towns. Using technology as an enabler RenewBuy has created differentiation in consumer experience and service, as well as in the geographical expansion of the sector. About responsAbility Investments AG responsAbility has invested over USD 11 billion in emerging markets since 2003, and as an impact asset manager, focuses on climate finance, sustainable food production, and financial inclusion. It works closely with players in local markets, as it maintains eight offices around the globe, in order to strategically take steps to directly contribute to reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Currently, responsAbility manages USD 3.7 billion in assets invested in over 300 ESG-vetted high-impact companies in nearly 80 countries.