Encouraged by the response from the Chennai market, the digital-first insurer Acko General Insurance aims to double its share in the city’s car insurance market to over 10 per cent in the next two years.
“We started in Chennai two years ago and it has been a wonderful growth story for us. Chennai is one of the fastest growing markets and we have gone from zero to 4 per cent market share in less than 24 months,” said Ashish Mishra, EVP - Marketing, ACKO.
As of H1FY23, the Bengaluru-based insurtech claims to have over 9 per cent market share in car insurance in Bengaluru and Hyderabad markets, followed by Pune (6.9 per cent), Chennai (5 per cent), and Mumbai (4.6 per cent).
“Chennai can be in the top 2-3 markets given the pace of growth. We should be closer to 10 per cent market share in the next two years,” Mishra added.
The digital native insurer last week launched an ad campaign, ‘Welcome Change’, starring cricketer Ravichandran Ashwin, exclusively for the Chennai market. Mishra said the campaign is to encourage consumers to choose their own insurance provider at the time of car purchase rather than just relying on the insurance provided by the dealers.
“This is a fundamental right provided to each consumer by IRDAI. Plus, the price difference between taking insurance from the dealers and from ACKO is as high as ₹65,000 for some car models,” he added.
Acko is a direct-to-consumer (D2C) insurance brand with no middlemen or brokers. Thus, the company can cut down the additional costs and offer insurance products at a reduced premium.
Retail health insurance
As of the first half of the current fiscal, over 41 per cent of Acko’s revenue comes from automobile insurance, 32 per cent from health insurance and 27 per cent from other insurance such as electronics, gadgets and travel.
“Currently, we are into GMC (Group Medical Cover), which is B2B corporate health insurance. By the end of this year, we will be launching our retail health insurance product,” Mishra said.
“Just like automobile insurance, our health insurance product will also disrupt the market not just in pricing but in terms of features that were never heard of in this category,” he added.