Rural Insurtech Startup GramCover Raises $7 Mn From Siana Capital, Inflexor Ventures

Rural insurtech startup GramCover has raised $7 Mn in Series A round led by Siana Capital and Inflexor Ventures. Stride Ventures, and existing investors Omidyar Network India, Flourish Ventures and Emphasis Ventures (EMVC) also participated in the funding round.

The funds raised will be used to strengthen technology and product offerings, “which would eventually help in scaling up its business and support functions,” the company said in a statement. It also plans to enhance the availability of various insurance products and services on “GramCover Partner” application.

GramCover is also eyeing expansion of its point of sale network, tech, sales and operation teams across multiple new and existing geographies — Bihar, West Bengal,  Assam, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra among others.

Founded in 2016 by Jatin Singh and Rishabh Singh, Delhi-NCR-based GramCover is a insurance marketplace focussed on rural India, focussing majorly on agriculture and auxiliary activities. In 2018, it was also selected for the Financial Inclusion Lab, a part of IIMA-CIIE’s Bharat Inclusion Initiative (BII), along with 10 other fintech startups where they received mentorship and guidance.

The startup has raised nearly INR 12 Cr from investors including Omidyar Network India, EMVC and Flourish Venture, in a seed and a Pre-Series A funding round.

According to the startup, in FY21 it worked with over 1.7 Mn rural customers providing insurance across products like crop, motor, livestock and health worth INR 110 Cr in premiums. It aims to insure more than 10 Mn farmers in the next two to three years with a premium target of INR 1,000 Cr.

The startup claims to have sold insurance to over 3.2 Mn Indian farmers through its platform since its inception till FY21, and has customers in 13 states, 50 districts, 450 blocks and 8,000 villages.

The insurance tech space is growing in India along with the robust growth of fintech. According to a recent report by S&P Global, the Asia-Pacific region has over 335 private insurtechs and China & India are collectively home to nearly half of the private insurtech companies in the APAC region.

Amid the IPO spree among new-age companies, Policybazaar, a leading insurance startup founded in 2008 has also filed for a INR 6,000 Cr IPO with the Securities and Exchange Board of India.

Rural tech startups also witnessed growth and investor interest of late. Bengaluru-based 1Bridge, a last-mile supply chain and distribution network with a focus on rural India, in August raised $2.5 Mn in a Pre-Series A round led by Netherlands-based C4D Partners and angel investor Prashanth Boccasam.

The rural population of India boasts around 70% of the total population in the country. A McKinsey report states that despite the prominence of urbanisation, the rural population is likely to account for 63% of the total market in India by 2025. Undoubtedly, the digital empowerment of rural India is important to bridge the digital gap, opening up huge potential for these startups.

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