[Exclusive Interview] This Insurtech Startup Helped 200+ SMEs To Provide Insurance For 1.2 Lakh Employees

Recently, we interacted with Mr. Sanil Basutkar, Co-founder of Healthysure – a go to platform for insurance and healthcare of employees.

Started off in May 2021 and are currently working with 200+ organizations and are impacting more than 100,000+ lives for their group benefits, Healthysure has successfully created a platform that will create robust value for organizations to manage their employee benefits. 

The technology platform acts as a differentiator and helps Healthysure seamlessly manage benefits across SMEs, start-ups, and enterprises. Healthysure has also opened their technology platform and created a first of its kind platform in India that offers full-stack infrastructure as a service for group benefits to intermediaries. What this means is that they provide end-to-end support for their partners to sell group insurance and healthcare, right from pricing to operations to claim settlement.

Here are the interview highlights:

1. Tell us about Healthysure and how it is changing the insurance business

Healthysure’s journey began in early 2021. We are a full stack group benefits platform offering insurance and healthcare programs to organizations through intermediaries like brokers, agents, and financial institutions. Till date, we have partnered with more than 300+ organizations and impacted the lives of 1,20,000+ people in our mission to make insurance and healthcare affordable and accessible to organizations across India.

Mr. Sanil Basutkar, Co-founder of Healthysure

Today, India is a heavily underpenetrated country when it comes to insurance. Specifically talking about the MSMEs which employ 90% of the country’s workforce, only 6% of them are covered by health insurance. We are building a technology stack which will help us reach this market, where innovation in group insurance distribution is yet to see the light of the day. This will eventually help us in addressing the insurance gap and covering millions of lives across India.

2. What inspired you to start this InsurTech company, and what sets you apart from other InsurTech startups in the industry?

The COVID-19 induced pandemic reminded all of us of the need and importance of securing our health and any financial implications which could arise on deterioration of the same.

This is when we realised that a significant portion of the population did not hold an insurance policy. Even those who were covered by insurance weren’t aware of the benefits, coverage, and the process of availing the benefits of claims. Thus, we felt the need to address this issue and started Healthysure.

Ever since, we have driven insurance inclusion through our products around group insurance and healthcare programs like doctor consultations, fitness, health check-ups, mental wellness, etc.

Customer satisfaction is at the core of our values, which sets us apart from the other insurtech start-ups in the group insurance space. Claims, which is a key component of the insurance experience, is something we have invested in heavily right from Day 1. This has led to 5-star customer reviews on our products and services. This is where we have surged ahead of our competitors.

3. How does your InsurTech company plan to disrupt the traditional insurance industry, and what advantages do your innovative solutions offer over traditional insurance products?

Currently, the group insurance industry in India is quite nascent when it comes to distribution in the Tier 2 and 3 towns of India, where the real Bharat lies along with the bulk of the MSMEs. Insurance is a subject matter of trust, and hence the human interface cannot be eliminated from insurance selling process. As a result of this, reaching the whole of India is not feasible for any one company. Hence, we are building an infrastructure wherein existing brokers and agents can leverage our technology to sell group insurance faster and more efficiently. Through this, we aim to penetrate deep into the market and eventually disrupt the traditional insurance industry.

4. Can you tell us about your core product offerings and how they address the pain points and needs of consumers in the insurance industry?

Insurance is our core offering for employees and stakeholders of and organizations across India. Additionally, we also source a host of health and wellness add-ons through our partners and package it for them to provide holistic benefits to their employees and stakeholders.

The main pain point which we are solving for organizations is the problem of sourcing various programs like insurance, healthcare, fitness, mental wellness etc. from different partners. This becomes a hassle for organizations and chokes the bandwidth of the HR/Admin team. Healthysure, being a one-stop-shop for all such programs becomes the only point of contact for the organization for all kinds of benefits.

Secondly, group insurance as a product comes with multiple advantages over a retail insurance. For example, group insurance is ~50% cheaper than retail insurance. Moreover, there is no waiting period (before one can make a claim) in a group insurance, maternity benefits are covered, claims settlements are simpler, and there are no mandatory pre-medical check-ups as well.

5. How does your InsurTech company utilize technology to improve the customer experience, and what benefits can customers expect from using your products?

We differentiate with our technology. We are the first in the country to offer infrastructure to the insurance ecosystem so that the intermediaries like insurance agents, brokers and financial advisors can provide group health benefits to their clientele. We see ourselves partnering with traditional players, that have built their business on relationships and trust like any other B2B business. We seek to help them manage the biggest friction in managing group benefits and provide them technology. This will encourage these channel intermediaries to actively propose group insurance products and will consequently see a rise in insurance penetration.

6. How does your company address concerns around data privacy and security, and what measures do you have in place to protect customer data?

We have strict internal policies with respect to data privacy and security as we understand the sensitive nature of the data. As we operate in the healthcare sector, we take our data protection very seriously. As we build a seamless digital experience, we are also working with the best partners and services to build a secure infrastructure for data access and data protection. The platform that we have built is robust and complies with the best security standards.

7. Can you speak to any challenges your company has faced in the startup phase, and how you have overcome them?

Like any other start-up, we faced challenges in establishing our brand and building our team. Luckily, we found a lot of takers for our product and found some amazing people to build Healthysure with. We started the company with our own funds and from friends and family before we raised our pre-series A round from institutions. We are now also on the path to profitability that will help us become sustainable. Our journey till now has been challenging, but we are proud to have traversed it. We still have a long way to go. 

8. What is your vision for the future of your InsurTech company, and how do you plan to achieve that vision?

We aim to power the entire end-to-end group insurance distribution infrastructure in India and extend our offerings to other geographies in the years to come. By partnering with the insurance ecosystem, we aim to penetrate deep into the market and ultimately fulfil our mission of making insurance and healthcare affordable and accessible to organizations far and wide.