PhonePe gets IRDAI nod to sell life, general insurance

Digital payments platform PhonePe on Monday said it has received in-principle approval from Irdai to be a broker to sell life and general insurance products.

With this, PhonePe said it can now offer insurance advice to its over 30 crore users (300 million). PhonePe has been issued an insurance broking licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), it said in a release.

Last year PhonePe entered the insurtech sector with a limited insurance corporate agent license. It restricted the company to partnering with only three insurance companies per category. Now, with this new direct broking licence, PhonePe can distribute insurance products from all insurance companies in India, it said.

"The new broking licence also allows PhonePe to start offering personalized product recommendations to its 300+ million users, and offering a much more diverse portfolio of insurance products for Indian consumers," the company said.

Gunjan Ghai, Vice-President & Head of Insurance at PhonePe, said, "This licence is a big milestone in our insurance journey. PhonePe is India's fastest growing insurtech and this move to broking will give us further momentum and accelerate our growth in this space."

The company is building a robust, full-service platform for its customer base through innovative products in partnership with high-quality insurers, Ghai said.