A New Venture Born Out of the Sale of Its Previous Business
Zopper, a New Delhi-based startup that has been around for more than 11 years, has built a platform for small- and medium-sized businesses. The company’s previous business was sold to PhonePe in mid-2018, but instead of joining the fintech giant, Zopper started working on a new venture from scratch and independent of PhonePe.
A New Approach to Insurance Infrastructure
Zopper is an API platform that provides insurance infrastructure. It creates byte-sized, personalized products that it then supplies to distribution partners. This approach differentiates Zopper from its competitors in India who are aggregating coverages from different manufacturers and trying to cut the distributors and directly reach consumers.
Solving the Problem of Low Insurance Penetration
Surjendu Kuila, founder and chief executive of Zopper, said that the penetration of insurance in India is just 3 to 4%. He believes that selling expensive schemes to new customers won’t work. Offering smaller sachets of insurance coverages hasn’t proven successful either because there’s no margin for anyone to make money.
A New Approach to Customer Acquisition
Zopper is attempting to solve this problem by partnering with banks, nonbanking financial institutions, retail chains, mobility firms that already have a captive customer base. Kuila claims that these partners need an insurance platform, and Zopper provides it.
A Scalable Business Model
Kuila said that no other firm is taking this approach and hence has not been able to lower their cost of customer acquisition. He claimed that Zopper’s business model is scalable and profitable, with the company being profitable for over 18 months.
Presence in Over 1,200 Indian Cities
Zopper currently has a presence in over 1,200 Indian cities and has partnered with over 150 players in the industry, including retail group Amazon, ride-hailing startup Ola, retail chain Croma, phonemaker Xiaomi, Japanese conglomerate Sony, and Indian conglomerate Reliance.
Funding for Growth
The $75 million funding round will be used to accelerate Zopper’s growth plans. The company aims to expand its presence in new markets and deepen its partnerships with existing ones.
A Strong Investor Base
Zopper has a strong investor base that includes Bessemer Venture Partners, Blume Ventures, Omidyar Network, Accel India, and Tiger Global Management. These investors believe in Zopper’s potential to disrupt the insurance industry in India.
Topics:
- Acko
- Asia
- Bessemer Venture Partners
- Blume Ventures
- Fintech
- Funding
- India
- Insurance
- PhonePe
- PolicyBazaar
- Startups
- Tiger Global Management
Reporter:
- Manish Singh
Bio:
- Manish Singh is a senior reporter at TechCrunch, covering India’s startup scene and venture capital investments. He also reports on global tech firms’ India play. Before joining TechCrunch in 2019, Singh wrote for about a dozen publications, including CNBC and VentureBeat. He graduated in Computer Science and Engineering in 2015. He is reachable on manish(at)techcrunch(dot)com.
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