InsurTech is an umbrella term for all technological solutions that enable insurers to implement new services or save costs while streamlining the existing ones. The concept is incredibly smart. In fact, it has emerged as a natural answer to the needs of customers demanding new, simpler ways of dealing with insurance companies. Pazcare is an employee benefit and insurtech platform redefining the way employee benefits are managed in India. It enables real-time management of employee benefits such as insurance, health, and financial benefits and streamlines them in one place. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Sanchit Malik, CEO, and Co-founder, Pazcare. 

1. Kindly brief us about the company, its specialization, and the services that your company offers.

Pazcare is an employee benefit and insurtech platform redefining the way employee benefits are managed in India. It enables real-time management of employee benefits such as insurance, health, and financial benefits and streamlines them in one place. On one hand, the employer struggles hard to coordinate & manage with multiple benefits providers, and on the other hand, employees do not have the idea what all benefits their employer is providing. Employer-employee benefits have a big disconnect as the service is primarily offline. Given the heavy process of servicing customers, traditionally followed by insurance brokers and employee benefits companies, they find only enterprises as viable business opportunities, thus neglecting the SMBs. We are solving this problem by digitally connecting all the stakeholders and bringing everything together on one platform.

2. Brief us about the proactive Founder/CEO of the company and his/her contributions towards the company and the industry.

Pazcare was founded in 2020 by entrepreneurs Sanchit Malik (CEO) and Manish Mishra (CTO). Sanchit Malik is a serial entrepreneur with a successful exit history. He was the Co-founder of Townscript which was acquired by Bookmyshow. Manish Mishra has been a core team member of startups, helping them build scalable platforms from scratch. He was the ex-Director of Engineering at Mindtickle and Cleartax before starting Pazcare.

3. What are the key trends driving the growth of the Insuretech Sector using AI/Machine Learning?

The usage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has increased exponentially over the past years. It is being used in almost every sector. Since the advent of technology, it has been developing by the day, making it easier for people to manage their business efficiently. In the insurance sector, the handling of risks is very important, and AI effectively manages that by computing the different variables for the insurers. This diminishes the risk involved in the future as well. Claim processing can be done at lightning speed which could be a crucial turning point. The insurance industry is quite competitive as the customers can easily compare different options available. But with AI, exposing frauds, negligible risk factors, and knowing the customer's requirements can be managed easily. This can help in customer retention as AI can assist them through chatbots. 

4. What are some of the challenges faced by your company today?

Like all the startups that are making deep impacts, one of the early challenges you face is to find product-market fit, get the right team, and raise capital. We have faced all of them and have been lucky enough to have got great support from the HR & Finance community who's adopting our product rapidly. We have been lucky to build a strong team with an entrepreneurial background and have also been able to raise the capital to grow the business. The pandemic took a heavy toll on the health and finances of individuals and companies. It made employers realize the importance of their employees' health and wellbeing and that just paying salaries is not enough but they also need to couple it with insurance and other health benefits for the bad times. Since we started out with addressing this challenge first, we have seen a huge demand from companies to devise a better benefits program for their employees. 

5. How is your company helping customers deliver relevant business outcomes through the adoption of the company's technology innovations?

Through our world-class tech platform, we have created a real-time user experience, which makes it extremely easy for the employer as well as the employee in personalizing and managing workplace benefits. Employers get a dashboard and each employee gets an app making it extremely convenient. Over the coming years, Pazcare also aims to widen its offerings beyond healthcare and be the one-stop-shop for all kinds of employee benefits. Our business model is B2B2C, where we start by empowering employers to provide and manage benefits to their employees. Since each employee may have different benefits requirements depending on age, location, marital status, etc, we provide flexibility to the employees to upgrade their benefits plan to suit their needs on the app. This could range from increasing the sum insured on the insurance cover or getting specialized doctor consultations to getting fitness-specific packs etc.

6. What is the edge your company has over other players in the industry?

Pazcare provides employers and their employees with flexible and personalized benefits, thereby transforming the employer-employee relationship at scale. Pazcare is obsessed with customer satisfaction which separates us from the rest of the players. Our differentiation can be witnessed at all levels of our engagement with our clients. Among the host of solutions that Pazcare provides are benefits and insurance management, mental health solutions, virtual doctor consultations, comprehensive blood tests, etc. We have increased our offerings in new insurance products like Group Personal Accident, Group Term Life in addition to existing Health insurance. We also launched an innovative insurance product that gives flexibility to the employees to buy additional coverage for themselves and their families (over and above what the employer provided) at a very nominal

cost. This product has also seen a lot of interest and traction. Additionally, Pazcare is now enabling employers to provide health and wellness benefits to their employees like health checkups, yoga & fitness, women health & hygiene offerings, making it a full-stack employee benefits and wellness platform. More than 80% of our existing employer base (200+ now) have already subscribed to these benefits. We see a lot of employees using these wellness benefits on the Pazcare app.

7. What are your growth plans for the next 12 months?

We had a great 2021 as we were able to onboard and service over 200+ corporate customers in our first year of existence. This year is going to be even better as we intend to grow 5X, in terms of the number of customers. We have set up a very great team and are also expanding to multiple locations, setting up deeper relationships with our customers. According to the IRDA report, Insurtech players are still limited to less than 0.1% of the total business in the Group Health category, so you can imagine the vast array of opportunities that lie ahead of us. The Health Insurance industry itself is witnessing double-digit growth. So the players with a good platform and service will see explosive growth this year.