Digisafe aims to close the gap between urban and rural areas by offering aggressive insurance products. It was founded over a decade of extensive research and analysis by its founding team, who completed their observational analysis in a localized survey under the Flagship Agri Insurance Scheme, PMFB.
In order to get more insights about the functioning of Digisafe, Krishi Jagran interacted with Anupam Shrey, Founder & Director of DigiSafe, who is responsible for facilitating tech integrations with insurance companies, creating POSP network across 7 states, curation of customized insurance products. which are relevant to the rural setup and supervising all the activities of the company.
Tell us about your company and what it does?
DigiSafe – Rural Insurance for India’s Local Broker is focused on contributing to securing rural India by reducing uncertain risks and enabling Phygital solutions through a variety of insurance products. DigiSafe has been conceptualized in our decade-long extensive research and analysis.
We started operations in September 2021, and have successfully launched DigiOne, a partnership program in association with our channel partners to identify, train, and develop a team of certified point-of-sale individuals (PoSPs) through a combination of physical distribution. And digital modes, this model will assist clients with pre-sales, post-sales, and claim services. We are working towards extending this service to Tier 2 and Tier 3 semi-urban markets very soon.
We are a one-of-a-kind insurtech firm that not only creates insurance solutions with insurance companies but also makes them easily accessible to buyers.
Every insurance policy that we sell gets a commission from the insurance companies. We connect all the dots of the ecosystem where customers can choose the right insurance products as per their requirements, from different companies through our PoSPs. We provide our products and services through the hybrid model of physical and digital modes for the comfort of its patrons.
We have a unique insurance program in DigiOne Gram Insurance, which will assist our clients with various services like pre-sales, post-sales, and claim services. It will bring all the people in one village under one insurance umbrella to provide efficient insurance cover to each member. We also offer 1 gram insurance through a phygital model that aligns simultaneously with government schemes like Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) and will bring further reform into the market.
The Mera Assistant application will serve as a decision support system by aiding the users to make informed decisions by gathering information from the field, community, and agricultural data. It will provide predictive analytics and an insurance dashboard to keep users updated with the weather, crop advisory, and government initiatives. This will not only help mitigate the risks but also promote the focus on revenue generation. We ensure high-speed claim assistance and end-to-end solutions at each doorstep.
All the members of our founding team (Mallikharjun Kukunari, Suman RoyChoudhury, Anupam Shrey, Rajat Dhar and Ashwin Arora) have explored the crop insurance segment in several states in India. We conclude our observational analysis in a localized survey under the Flagship Agriculture Insurance Scheme, PMFBY.
What were the challenges of setting up and scaling? How did you overcome them?
We have managed to overcome various hurdles, some of which are creating simple and affordable products for the needs of the rural population and identifying DigiOne while spreading awareness to make our customers resonate with the concept.
Rural markets have a huge scope for growth which entails cover for crops that remain uncovered under schemes like Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, small businesses started by groups of women, catastrophe bonds, etc. We believe that the key to penetration lies in rural areas in the simplicity, easy administration, and affordability of the products. Product customization will further depend on various factors such as building vocational reliance on agricultural vocations, including weather, innovation in policies, or natural disasters, and having our policies align with these unforeseen contingencies.
What are the key features that stand out from the companies operating in the Agritech space?
We are a one-of-a-kind insurtech firm that not only creates insurance solutions with insurance companies but also makes them easily accessible to buyers.
Every insurance policy that we sell gets a commission from the insurance companies. We connect all the dots of the ecosystem where customers can choose the right insurance products as per their requirements, from different companies through our PoSPs. We provide our products and services through the hybrid model of physical and digital modes for the comfort of its patrons.
How is it a one-stop platform for all the farmers?
Our practices are very much in line with the Honorable Prime Minister’s vision of Vocal for Local and we hope to create a measurable impact across all pin codes in India over the next two years by on-boarding 10,000 PoSPs and serving over 10 million farmers. The rural economy depends mainly on crops. Their major source of income is through crops but only a few major crops are covered under PMFBY so farmers have no insurance operations apart from PMFBY notified crops.
We understand how farmers need small ticket-sized products with low-margin premiums. We are bringing simplified and affordable products that span the Motor, Health, Livestock, Crop, and Life Insurance for people living in rural areas at their doorsteps. Such features will penetrate deeper into the rural markets and a pull structure will help farmers reduce risks and gain increased revenue.
We also want to gradually eliminate the financial uncertainty that looms over the rural people, especially the farmer communities. Our goal is to provide them with a sense of trust and confidence when it comes to making informed decisions, employment opportunities as well as revenue generation. By contributing to society and bridging the gap between urban and rural, we intend to climb the ladder of success together with mutual cooperation and growth.
What are your growth priorities for 2022?
We have been able to insure 500 plus people in 14 states since our operations in September 2021. We plan to capitalize on the existing number of agents we have from 100 to 10,000 in the next 2 years and spread our services to all suburban. and rural areas across India. We aim to eliminate the financial uncertainty that looms over rural people, providing them with a sense of confidence when it comes to making informed decisions, employment opportunities as well as revenue generation.
What are your expectations with Krishi Jagran?
To continue to bring out the stories of the farmers and the rural sector, the adversaries they face, and how the technology and innovations a lot of companies like ours are providing real-time solutions to those in need.
(Author- Shivam Dwivedi)