The Bengaluru-based insurtech startup, Finsall has secured Rs 15 crore in a bridge funding round. Led by Unicorn India Ventures and Seafund, several other institutional investors also participated.
Finsall plans to use the fresh funds to set up a non-banking finance company. This will allow them to expand their lending operations and offer their customers even better insurance premium financing options.
The additional funds will strengthen partnerships with insurance companies, brokers, and lenders. Moreover, the company will invest in technology to create a user-friendly platform for its stakeholders. This will make the whole insurance premium financing process smoother and more digital.
In January 2022, Finsall raised Rs 12 crore in a pre-Series A round led by Unicorn India Ventures and Seafund.
“Our numbers were scaling up pretty rapidly, and with the rate at which we were growing, the existing investors felt that it was a good shot in the arm. It gave us a lot of tailwinds to go ahead and raise in the current market,” Tim Mathews, cofounder and CEO of Finsall, said.
Finsall is already in talks with multiple investors to raise around $10 million in a Series A round within the next six to seven months. This continuous funding fuels their expansion plans, including establishing a non-banking finance company, building partnerships, and enhancing their digital platform for a seamless insurance premium financing experience.
“We will feel more comfortable if we are a regulated entity. Larger players like Paytm, PhonePe, and Jupiter in the lending fintech space would be more comfortable with an NBFC, and I think that’s where we are also going. Once we have that pedigree of an NBFC, it gives a lot more confidence to the RBI as well,” Mathews said.
Finsall started in 2018 with a mission to make insurance more accessible. This Bengaluru-based company, founded by Mathews, Promod Khanna, and Prabal Khanna, is an insurance-first “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) service. They help people pay for their insurance premiums over time.
Finsall also offers a CaaS (Credit-as-a-Service) platform. This user-friendly system helps businesses offer insurance premium financing without needing to build their own complex credit or lending software.
Finsall revenue has skyrocketed ninefold in just two years. The company expanded its reach to serve customers across a vast network of 8,000 locations in India. It has seen strong growth in non-life insurance and successfully partnered with multiple insurers. Mathews said that Finsall also plans to expand its offerings into the life insurance market.
In FY24, their insurance premiums grew an impressive 18% month-over-month on average. This success fuels their ambitious goals – Finsall aims to quadruple their revenue by the end of FY25.
“Insurance premium financing remains a nascent sector, but in the last 2 years, especially post-Covid, there is a strong customer acceptance of this model. Insurance providers to the end users are now comfortable with an option to use credit for financing insurance premiums. Given that insurance penetration in the country is still at 1%, the market opportunity is huge and we believe Finsall has built the right momentum to capitalise on this segment,” said Anil Joshi, managing partner, Unicorn India Ventures.
