Rural Insurtech Startup GramCover Raises $7 Mn Series A Round Led By Siana Capital And Inflexor Ventures Funds will be used to strengthen technology and team for blitz scaling geographical presence
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Rural insurtech startup GramCover, on Monday, announced their Series A fundraise of $7 million co-led by Siana Capital and Inflexor Ventures. Stride Ventures also participated in this round alongside existing investors Omidyar Network India, Flourish Ventures, and Emphasis Ventures (EMVC). Unitus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to the company on the transaction.
With this fundraise, the company will strengthen the technology and product offerings to significantly scale up the business and support functions. GramCover will also enhance the availability of various insurance products and services on "GramCover Partner" application and also expand its point-of-sale network, tech, sales, and operation teams across multiple geographies.
"We are excited about our Series A fundraise with seasoned tech-focussed investors like Siana Capital and Inflexor. We, at GramCover, will be strengthened by their deeptech domain expertise and their startup experience as we work towards building growth and profitability focussed rural insuretech organization," said Dhyanesh Bhatt, co-founder and group chief executive officer, GramCover.
GramCover, the tech-enabled insurance marketplace for rural India has adopted a unique technology-led distribution and servicing model customized for rural India to minimize the inefficiencies and transaction costs involved in protecting people's assets and families.
"My vision of starting GramCover has been to provide a comprehensive cover to rural India. I believe that the security of the village, the cow, the car, the crop, and the disease, is our responsibility," shared Jatin Singh, founder, and managing director, GramCover.
GramCover started its journey in 2018 by insuring 1000 farmers. In FY 21, the company worked with more than 1.7 million rural customers providing insurance across products like crop, motor, livestock, and health worth 1.1 billion INR in premiums. The company aims to continue on its growth trajectory and would like to insure more than 10 million farmers in the next two to three years with a premium target of INR10 billion. During this period, team GramCover aims to deepen its footprint in states where it is already present like Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, Uttarakhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, etc. and shall further extend its presence across other states as well.
"GramCover team has understood the key nuances of scaling up the non-urban segment of insurance distribution which is a gigantic opportunity in India. With a solid end-to-end deep technology platform in conjunction with a human-assisted local agency network, we feel GramCover is well-positioned to continue its high growth trajectory. Further, the business model helps achieve the twin objectives of profitable growth and providing livelihood risk protection to a largely rural population of India," noted Dinesh Goel, partner, Siana Capital.
With the advent of technology, GramCover has seen an uptick in rural India's insurance penetration. Over the next decade, GramCover expects the rural insurance industry to grow significantly supported by a seamless tech-enabled distribution mechanism, relevant products, right ticket sizes, and a robust ecosystem for servicing and claims support.
"Our investment in GramCover stems from Inflexor's conviction in backing technology-led enterprises working towards deepening the insurance penetration, to create a meaningful impact in a large, under-insured market. We are pleased to co-lead the investment and partner with a stellar team of Jatin and Dhyanesh, with demonstrated capabilities of execution. We believe GramCover will play a pivotal role in radically transforming the insurance landscape of Bharat," added Pratip Mazumdar, partner, Inflexor Ventures.
Over 3.2 million Indian farmers have purchased insurance through GramCover since inception till FY 21, and the company has customers in 13 states, 50 districts, 450 blocks, and 8000 villages, the platform said.
