PhonePe sees rising demand for Covid insurance with increasing cases

India's leading digital payments platform PhonePe said on Thursday that coronavirus insurance has seen widespread adoption lately with 75 per cent of its policies bought by customers in smaller towns outside the tier-1 cities.

This reflects the trust in PhonePe platform among users in smaller towns and rural areas. The top states contributing to sales include Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Telangana and Gujarat.

PhonePe offers affordable coronavirus insurance policies in association with Bajaj Allianz General. The claims of more than Rs 3.5 crore have already been paid.

"The last few weeks have seen resurgence in COVID-19 cases across the country. Many Indians still do not have health insurance covers as a result of which they may have to bear an additional financial burden in case someone in their family needs to be hospitalised for COVID-19," said Vice President and Head of Insurance of PhonePe Gunjan Ghai.

"Keeping this in mind, we are one of the very few players in the market today who continue to offer coronavirus insurance product for our vast base of users," she added.

PhonePe is India's largest digital payments platform with over 287 million registered users. It has launched several mutual funds and insurance products like tax-saving funds, liquid funds and international travel insurance.

It is accepted at over 18.6 million merchant outlets across 500 cities nationally.