Ravi Khandwala, Founder

One of the oldest industries of modern civilization, Insurance is witnessing a tech revolution at a breakneck speed. In India, insurance has endured countless structural changes. From being completely government-controlled to being FDI-friendly to welcoming new-age tech—artificial intelligence/machine learning, bots, IoT and Analytics now, these latest developments are transforming the Indian insurance sector. According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, gross premiums written in India grew to reach 5.53 trillion rupees ($78 billion) in the fiscal year 2018, with 4.6 trillion rupees from life insurance and 1.5 trillion rupees from nonlife insurance. Overall insurance penetration (premiums as a percent of GDP) in India, meanwhile, reached 3.69 percent in 2017, up from 2.71 percent in 2001. The industry is vibrant and growing. Mumbai-based RKinsure is contributing to this growth story; following this trend closely and implementing new technologies to remain current and dynamic.

Known to be a local insurance agency, RKinsure largely caters to the custom-house agents, customs brokers, freight forwarders, logistics companies, Exim traders like exporters and importers for their marine policies, marine liability, and professional indemnity policies. Besides, it helps Infrastructure companies for their project policies and workers liability policies. It also works closely with custom brokers association.

“There are numerous claims over these years, and we handhold the client from the appointment of surveyors, filling up the claim form, helping them in the documentation, interaction with the surveyors and the insurance companies, we make their claim journey easy. Many times, we have requested the insurance companies to take a commercial call to settle the claim to ensure client satisfaction,” enlightens Ravi Khandwala, Founder.

Rkinsure caters its services to more than 500 such clients issuing more than 15,000 policies per year

The Inception Story

Prior to establishing RKinsure, Ravi worked as a sub-broker for stocks and in inter-corporate finance arranging ICDs and bill discounting. The dwindling brokerage on stocks led him to exit that segment and lower interest rates made the financial instruments redundant. This happened in 2002 and while the insurance sector was opening up, it was a question of survival for him. He began selling small-ticket policies after acquiring his Life and General insurance license. “A friend started giving me container policies on a regular basis. This paved the way for me and from then onwards, I started tapping clearing forwarding agents and freight forwarding agents. I began delivering policies within half an hour at a competitive rate. This changed the dynamics of the trade,” says Ravi.

Today, the company caters its services to more than 500 such clients issuing more than 15,000 policies per year. With two offices with a small team of motivated people eager to help the clients, it services each client throughout the customer lifecycle – selection of right policy, issuance of policy, payments, claims, and renewals. “Proximity to the client locations helps in a great deal when it comes to service. With good relations built over many years with top insurance firms and brokers, we have a technical backbone and professionalism that is at par with best,” he asserts.

The Bright Side

RKinsure is one of the firsts to have their own marine policy issuance portal that is capable of handling the heavy transactional volume. “In 2018 we were in the top 10 of 200 global producers of a multinational insurance company having sold the highest number of online policies in India,” he mentions. In terms of revenue, the company has recorded a growth of 20 percent annually.

In the coming years, the team aims to move towards an insure-tech model to cater to each customer in a better way and also increase their profitability. “We need to constantly update data gathering tools that help in profiling customers based on their needs and giving them a more targeted product,” concludes Ravi.