Upstox Ventures Beyond Investments, Forays Into Insurance Distribution

Ratan Tata-backed online discount platform Upstox today announced that it is foraying into the insurance distribution business. 

The company said that it aims to offer a simplified, transparent and customised insurance buying experience to its users. 

While it currently has term life insurance on its platform, it is also planning to roll out health, motor and travel insurance soon. 

Upstox said that it aims to leverage technology and industry expertise to simplify the insurance process, and ease the identification of top insurance plans in each category while also making the claim process smooth. 

Upstox cofounder Kavitha Subramanian said, “Our aim is to help customers cut through the noise and help Indians Invest Right. We are constantly working towards making our platform simple, secure, fast, and intuitive. With the launch of insurance on our platform, we will remain steadfast in our endeavour of helping our users manage their wealth effectively for a secure financial future.”

Founded by Subramanian, Raghu Kumar, Ravi Kumar and Shrinivas Viswanath, Upstox is an investment and trading platform with a customer base of over 1.3 Cr. 

Like most investment tech platforms, Upstox charges INR 20 per executed order or 2.5%, whichever is lower for equity delivery. 

For intraday, futures, currency, and commodity trading it charges INR 20 per executed order or 0.05%, whichever is lower and for options trading it takes flat INR 20 per executed order. 

The startup has raised a total funding of $60.25 Mn to date. It raised its last funding on 26 August 2022. It claimed to have achieved profitability in FY23 with a consolidated profit of over INR 25 Cr.

For FY23, its broking revenue increased 44% to cross the INR 1,000 Cr. Its EBITDA also surpassed the INR 200 Cr level for the same period. 

While Upstox has scaled up on the investment tech front, it’ll face stern competition in the insurance distribution vertical from the likes of Phonepe, Paytm, Flipkart, Policybazaar among other players, besides insurers that are selling directly.