How is this insurance broker trying to fix the Employee happiness missing in Group Health Insurance Policies?
Q&A with Susheel Agarwal, CEO of Ethika Insurance broking
Insurance startup Ethika Insurance Brokers is an insurance platform that provides its clients with different insurance services such as Group Health insurance, Individual health insurance, Engineering insurance and other types of insurance. Launched in 2016 and headquartered at Hyderabad, the company has achieved 97% client retention rate which is probably the highest in the insurance market. They are reportedly serving around 300 corporate clients with more than 1 lacs happier Lives.
Q.1)You are a bootstrapped company, would you like to share your journey with us?
Yes. I knew the meaning of the word bootstrapped when our company shifted from startup phase to growth phase. We were lucky enough to not go to any investor for investment or any guidance probably because we had unconditional support from our Ethika insurance team who came with rich insurance experience. We would love to give a big shoutout to our first clients who supported us to scale up the business and build the “Employee happiness” factor in the Group health insurance policies.
We were able to handle our initial roller coaster rides and hiccups with the help of our dedicated team. The feeling of an entrepreneur in particular to a startup cannot be explained in words, it can only be experienced. We are proud to say that we are still following the principles which formed the foundation of the company.
Q.2)Was it difficult for your startup in 2014 when no one in the government talked about startups?
There were new companies which were formed before 2014 but the concept of startup gained momentum after 2014 when the Governments of different states and the GOI had created multiple opportunities for the budding entrepreneurs in India. Although we started our journey in the year 2016 after obtaining a license from IRDA, we had done groundwork for 2 years prior to starting the company.
Nowadays every college graduate wants to start own company and approach investors for investment, but now the concept of a good company has changed a lot. I’ve observed that the purpose of building a business is diluted, the best business is the one that can be easily sold to the people or investors as we are in a “business of doing business”.
When I started the company there were not many investors or ease of investing which is available to the budding entrepreneurs now. I’ve tried hard to mobilize funds for the business by selling my house which was a bad decision by many well wishers, but if I introspect now it would be the best decision I have ever made.
Q.3)What was the pandemic period like for you and your company? Does it change anything?
One good thing which we did from the day 1 of starting the company is to focus heavily on innovation and technology and onboarded those employees who share the same mindset as ours. You would be surprised to know that we had a “Work from home” policy from 2016 itself when the concept was still in its nascent stage in India. Half of our employees worked from home before the pandemic which made it easier for us to handle the operations during the pandemic.
We realigned our team to work from home effectively during the pandemic and thereby were able to reduce the impact on the company. We had an impact to a certain extent as we were dependent on our partners who faced issues during the pandemic period. The pandemic has changed our thinking process to align to the challenges that would be posed from time to time.
Q.4)There are many insurtech companies in the market, how would you differentiate from them?
Our main motto in starting Ethika insurance is to build a company that creates some kind of value addition in the lives of our customers. There are many companies in the market which are being built and have a single aim of selling the business to the highest bidder, but we have started Ethika insurance with an intention to fill the void of Employee Happiness in the insurance space in India.
We have received many requests for investment from investors but as of now we are focusing on scaling up the insurance operations without compromising on ethics. We differentiate ourselves on two parameters; one is to provide value addition to clients which in turn builds value for our business, the other is we are directed by our clients and mold ourselves as per the requirements of our clients.
Q.4)What do you think can be improved from the insurance companies side and customers side with reference to Health insurance?
Health insurance is a financial tool that helps people protect their finances at the time of hospitalization. I think insurance companies should take a few measures to prevent customers from falling sick in addition to the service provided at the time of hospitalization. It serves the interests of both the parties in insurance contracts, insurance companies can reduce the claims while the customers can get good health. Reduction in insurance claims reduces the health insurance premium charged by the insurance companies which again benefits the customers.
Few customers in India think that since they have taken health insurance they can live a life without conditions which is a wrong perception as the focus should be on being healthy. For example some people think that they can be involved in rash driving and if they end up in hospital their health insurance policy will cover the expenses. If you observe the health insurance sales, the graph would rise during Jan, Feb and March months as these are the tax planning months.
Customers should rethink their strategies by considering health insurance policy which should be taken immediately and not wait for the tax planning period. People should also take adequate health insurance coverage in their health insurance policy as the benefit of taking a health insurance policy should be complete and not partial.
Q.5)How are you planning to capture the group health insurance share from the existing brokers in the market?
I don’t look at capturing the share from existing brokers in the market as the Cake is big enough for everyone in the market. We are talking about a market which is growing by almost 35% every year and is also under penetrated. There is much more potential in the Indian market where most of the brokers are looking at the existing market and ignoring the other yet to grab market.
We are here to focus on bringing more first time clients on board and increase our share year on year. Insurance market needs a bit of smart work to be done. As far as I’m concerned we look at ourselves as competitors and try to increase the business done yesterday. If we have given X value to my clients, we focus to increase it to X+1the next year.
Q.6)Any fundraising plans?
As of now we do not have any fundraising plans at Ethika insurance. We have a set of people who are attracted to our values and are ready to invest in our company, so finding the right investor if needed would not be a problem for us.
Q.7)Are you planning to introduce any new products into the market?
We are an insurance broker in the insurance market who act as a facilitator between the client and the insurance company. New products can only be introduced by the insurance companies and not by the brokers. In addition to being a facilitator Ethika insurance brokers also act as a risk management system through which our clients can reduce, mitigate and outsource the risk. At present we are present in all lines of insurance business and we may look forward to including sachet insurance products to serve our existing clientele.
Q.8)What is the reason behind starting Ethika insurance when there are more than enough brokers in the market?
There are only 600 brokers in the Indian market for a population of 130 Crore and more than 10 million registered companies. As I mentioned earlier there is enough space for new entrants in the insurance market. The main reason behind starting Ethika insurance brokers is to add value to the lives of our clients by offering timely service, client experience and user experience. If you observe the Western countries most of the insurance business is done by insurance brokers whereas in India Individual Agents take the major share of business.
Q.9)What is the concept of “ Employee Happiness”, could you explain it to our readers?
The concept of employee happiness came when one of our vendors asked me how we were able to maintain employee happiness with our clients and employees. The main use of insurance comes at the time of claim and this is where Ethika insurance comes into play. Employees of our clients need us the most at the time of claim and it can be at any time in the day or night, this is where we try to make our clients happy by ensuring timely settlement of claims. We even go out and out to settle the claims within the minimum possible time in coordination with the insurance company.
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