Insurtech Startup Nova Benefits Bags Funding To Focus On Product Expansion

Insurtech startup, Nova Benefits, has raised an undisclosed amount of investment from Naval Ravikant-backed AngelList Early-Stage Quant Fund.

The funding will be used by the startup to expand its offerings across multiple sectors including product management, engineering and sales. 

Nova Benefits also plans to use the funds to set up an Analytics Division. This separate section will be used to track hiring and employee wellness trends by leveraging data access provided by AngelList Quant Fund. 

The startup aims to onboard 10 Mn customers in India by 2025.

Founded in 2020 by Yash Gupta and Saransh Garg, Nova Benefits enables corporate firms to avail customised health insurance plans for their employees. The startup allows employees to access all deals on a single platform, without any added overhead for the HR department.

Head of the Quant Fund’s investment panel, Abraham Othman, said, “The Quant Fund is thrilled to be an investor in Nova Benefits. We believe that exceptional outcomes require exceptional people, and the volume and quality of Nova’s job applicants ranks among the very top of startups globally, not just in India.”

Nova Benefits CTO and cofounder, Yash Gupta, said, “B2B insurance traditionally comes with a ton of manual work because of frequent changes in employee rosters. This also makes the onboarding experience for new employees sub-par…At Nova, we are building an employee wellness platform that is easy to use for HR teams and employees alike. Our tech infrastructure has been developed to address the challenges faced when purchasing policies, understanding policy terms, applying for claims, gamifying fitness activities, and accessing wellness benefits like mental health counselling.”

The startup claims to have onboarded more than 200 companies since its launch with over 100K employees insured. Some of the big names associated with the startup include ecommerce platform Snapdeal, IPO-bound healthtech startup PharmEasy, unicorn fantasy sports platform Dream11, crypto exchange CoinDCX, among others.

The startup had, in September last year, raised $10 Mn in a Series A funding round led by SIG, Bessemer, Multiply Ventures, among others. Before that in June of 2021, the startup had raised a seed funding of $1 Mn from a slew of investors including Better Capital, Multiply Ventures and others.

This is the first Indian investment of Naval Ravikant-backed AngelList Early-Stage Quant Fund. The data-based algorithmic fund is a brainchild of the AngelList platform that connects early stage startups to investors.

The company handout says that Nova Benefits was shortlisted for funding based on the startup’s high hiring volumes, which has been consistently at par with global brands.

India’s overall fintech market is estimated to grow to $1.3 Tn by 2025 at a CAGR of 31%. Of this, insurtech is likely to account for almost 26%, worth as much $339 Bn. An Inc42 analysis found that insurtech would emerge as the fastest-growing fintech sub-segment in terms of market opportunity by 2025.

Despite pandemic affecting premium payments, the global Insurtech market was valued at $9.4 Bn in 2020 and is projected to reach $158 Bn by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 32.7% from 2021 to 2030. 

This comes amidst a resurgent Indian insurtech ecosystem. Earlier today, Sachin Bansal-led Navi Technologies announced that it had converted itself into a public company, taking it one step closer towards a public listing. 

Last month, Bengaluru-based fintech startup Finsall also raised INR 12 Cr in a Pre-Series A funding round led by Unicorn India Ventures (UIV) and SEA Fund,among others,

Insurance broker, SecureNow, too raised $6 Mn from Apis Insurtech Fund late last year. 2021 also saw Fairfax-backed Digit Insurance raising $200 Mn valuing the startup at $3.5  Bn. With this, Digit Insurance became the second insurtech startup, after PolicyBazaar, to enter India’s unicorn club.

The Indian insurtech sector is dominated by big names such as Digit Insurance, Acko General, PolicyBazaar, OneAssist, PolicyBoss among others. 

The insurtech segment shows no signs of slowing down and the investment in Nova Benefits is a testament to that. But, while the market for the startup is niche, it has a huge market potential.

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