PolicyBazaar Controls Losses By 78%, Revenues Jump 225% For FY18

Online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar posted its financial performance for the fiscal year 2017-18, scoring a growth of 225% in its revenues and at the same time controlling its losses by 78%.

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs filings accessed by Inc42, the standalone company PolicyBazaar’s revenue for the year reached $21.67 Mn (INR 159.4 Cr), against $6.67 Mn (INR 49.1 Cr). Interestingly, operational revenues contributed 99.3% of total revenues reaching $21.52 Mn (INR 158.3 Cr). This comes on the backdrop of 383% increase in its operational income in FY17.

For the uninitiated, PolicyBazaar Group has two entities: PolicyBazaar and PaisaBazaar. PolicyBazaar started its operations in 2008 as a web aggregator and comparison website for insurance products. Later, in February 2014, it started PaisaBazaar — its financial advisory platform — thereby marking its entry in the digital lending space.

As the company goes on its growth trajectory with entry into the unicorn club, here are the financials SoftBank betted on for the standalone company PolicyBazaar:

• The total expenses for the year were $22.95 Mn (INR 168.8 Cr), a jump of 81.5% against $12.64 Mn (INR 93 Cr)
• Employee benefit expenses continued the huge growth for its 1,898 employees,  a jump of 64% reaching $13.51 Mn (INR 99.4 Cr). Earlier in FY17, employee benefit expenses increased by 93% (from FY16)
• At the same time, the company continued to invest heavily in marketing and promotional activities recording an increase of 216% reaching $4.34 Mn (INR 31.9 Cr). In FY17, these expenses increased by 73% to $1.37 Mn (INR 10.08 Cr)
• PolicyBazaar’s highlight for the year became 78% control in its losses reaching $1.27 Mn (INR 9.4 Cr) from $5.97 Mn (INR 43.9 Cr) in FY17

Founded in 2008, PolicyBazaar enables users to compare life insurance and general insurance products. The startup features products of all major insurance companies in India on its platform to help its users decide which policy suits them best.

PolicyBazaar has raised $364 Mn till date from investors such as InfoEdge, SoftBank, Tiger Global, Temasek etc.

As Inc42 Datalabs noted in What The Financials series for FY17 results, riding on the wave of increased financial transactions and the digital push in the economy, online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar had registered a standalone growth of 383% and consolidated growth of 331% (along with PaisaBazaar, the loan and credit card aggregation platform of PolicyBazaar).

The company has also launched its new healthcare business DocPrime a few months ago and has been working to convert consumers spending out of their pockets on healthcare into getting insurance.

According to a market research report by The Ken, total online loan disbursement in India between 2014-2016 increased at a CAGR of 68.8%.

With overall fintech sector expected to reach $500 Bn by 2020, PolicyBazaar’s focus continues to be expansion and strong growth on the books.