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IndiaFirst Life Insurance Company Ltd (IndiaFirst), the youngest life insurer in the Indian market, will soon raise fresh capital of Rs 150 crore to fund business growth, its Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Dr P. Nandagopal, has said.
“An additional tranche of Rs 150 crore of capital will be introduced very shortly. Maybe in a month's time,” Dr Nandagopal told Business Line here.
The fresh capital infusion will come from existing shareholders. While Bank of Baroda holds a 44 per cent stake in IndiaFirst, Andhra Bank and UK-based Legal & General hold 30 per cent and 26 per cent stake, respectively.
IndiaFirst, which commenced its commercial operations in November 2009, is currently capitalised at Rs 455 crore. The company had in the first 500 days after commencement of operations reported a total new business income of Rs 900 crore.
IndiaFirst on Wednesday announced its foray into the health insurance segment. It has launched a unit-linked health insurance plan — IndiaFirst Money Back Health Insurance Plan. This is a long term savings-cum-health insurance plan for five or 10 years.
“Not only is it cashless in over 4,956 network hospitals, you just need to swipe your health card, like you do for your credit-card, and our call centre will instantly authorise the payment after checking the eligibility. This is the first of its kind facility offered in India and will be most convenient for customers in case of medical emergencies”, Dr Nandagopal said.
He also said that IndiaFirst would in the coming days be clearly focused on three growth areas — health, pension and micro-insurance. In next three years, at least 10 per cent of the company's overall revenues should come from health insurance, Dr Nandagopal noted.
Pre-paid card
Under this health insurance plan, every customer gets a pre-paid health card along with the policy pack. This card is loaded with customer details and could be used in any of the Mastercard service network hospitals.
“The customer need not go to the Third party administrators or send a fax. Once you swipe the card, immediately the authorisation happens. Again when he gets discharged from hospital, he would need to swipe it and the hospital gets the money through the MasterCard service network, bypassing the entire documentation that is otherwise required and makes the whole process hassle-free,” Dr Nandagopal said.
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