Toffee Insurance, a Gurgaon-based all-digital insurtech startup has recently announced India's first Salary Protect Plan (Kamai Bachao Yojna) Health insurance to protect loss of income in case of hospitalization.
Toffee has partnered with EKO, a digital lending platform for domestic remittances. The idea is to enable previously underserved and disempowered Indians from low - and lower middle-income populations to now access much-needed insurance services.
Toffee Insurance's partnership with Eko is a part of the financial inclusion plan for the Next Half Billion who represent the 500 million first-time internet users expected to come online within the next 5 years via their mobile phones. For a migrant laborer working in a far-off metro, income loss can be devastating.
Insurance protection, while needed, is a forbidding prospect with lack of options and accessibility. It is with this in mind that Toffee Insurance designed a product that is sensitive, simple and designed especially for easy purchase and claims.
Toffee Insurance's Salary Protect plan costs Rs. 449/- and is valid for 1 year from purchase date. The policy has been underwritten by Apollo Munich. This policy is straightforward coverage plan of Rs. 1000 per day of hospitalization for up to 30 days.
It is eligible for individuals between 18 yrs to 65 yrs of age and is created as an income replacement plan for daily wage earners. The policy supports the developing gig-economy or anyone across daily wage earning, such as Uber, Ola drivers or delivery boys from Swiggy and Zomato.
An industry that has long required handwritten, paper documentation and redundant processes for insurance products has been turned upside down by Toffee Insurance making the claiming process significantly simple, requiring only an uploaded photo of hospital documents by visiting any nearest EKO Merchant, PAN India, to file a claim.
Toffee Insurance and EKO's innovative business models and products are tailored to meet the needs of the Next Half Billion (NHB) in accessible and affordable means. With this partnership, the largest obstacle is overcome - as the EKO merchant serves as a micro-influencer.
Once they have converted the consumer online, completing their first digital transition, the merchant introduces Toffee Insurance's Salary Protect policy and can complete the seamless, all-digital process under 2 minutes. EKO's merchant network allows NHBs to complete their first digital transaction face-to-face with shop owners, establishing trust and confidence.
In the words of Rohan Kumar, CEO and Co-founder of Toffee Insurance, "Over the last few decades, we've seen major developments in technology, and as of late, banking, making it easier for consumers to avail their services, retaining and growing their relevance. Insurance, on the other hand, has lagged behind. We've watched fintech explode, while insurance continues to crawl. Our partnership with EKO who is a market leader in remittance is a poof point of our commitment to making insurance accessible, affordable and efficient for the masses."
On partnering with Toffee Insurance, the EKO team added, "We at EKO are creating a tech-powered retail network to provide sachet financial products and services to low and moderate-income customers. In order to protect their daily wage income during any health mishap, we are partnering with Toffee insurance to provide a Salary Protect Plan which bears their hospitalization expense of Rs. 1000 per day for 30 days a year. For us this is the beginning of providing sachet third-party financial product to our customer segment.
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