Amazon now sells auto insurance in India

Comment

Amazon’s India business said on Thursday it has begun offering auto insurance to cover two and four-wheelers in the country, marking the American giant’s first foray into this financial services category globally.

The e-commerce giant said it had inked a deal with Mumbai-headquartered Acko General Insurance to offer customers car and motor-bike insurance. Amazon is also an investor in Acko.

Mahendra Nerurkar, chief executive and director of Amazon Pay in India, said on Wednesday evening at a fintech conference that the company was planning to expand its insurance service to offer coverage on health, flight and cabs.

The auto insurance is available to customers through Amazon Pay on the e-commerce giant’s website and app. The company said buying insurance will take less than two minutes and requires no paperwork.

“This coupled with services like hassle-free claims with zero paperwork, one-hour pick-up, 3-day assured claim servicing and 1 year repair warranty – in select cities, as well as an option for instant cash settlements for low value claims, making it beneficial for customers,” it added.

Customers who have subscribed to Amazon Prime, the company’s loyalty program that costs about $13 a year in India, will be able to access additional benefits and discounts, Amazon said without identifying those benefits.

India’s insurance market is the latest financial services sector that has attracted the attention of local and international tech giants. Paytm, India’s most valued startup, and its chief executive Vijay Shekhar Sharma, acquired insurance firm Raheja QBE for a sum of $76 million earlier this month.

In India, only a fraction of the nation’s 1.3 billion people currently have access to insurance, and some analysts say that digital firms could prove crucial in bringing these services to the masses.

According to rating agency ICRA, insurance products had reached less than 3% of the population as of 2017. An average Indian makes about $2,100 a year, according to the World Bank. Of those Indians who had purchased an insurance product, they were spending less than $50 on it in 2017, ICRA estimated.

“Our vision is to make Amazon Pay the most trusted, convenient and rewarding way to pay for our customers. Delighted by this experience, there has been a growing demand for more services. In line with this need, we are excited to launch an auto insurance product that is affordable, convenient, and provides a seamless claims experience,” said Vikas Bansal, director and head of financial services at Amazon Pay in India, in a statement.

Though Amazon Pay is available in several markets, the payments service’s offering in India remains unmatched. The company has used the world’s second largest internet market, where it has invested more than $6.5 billion to date, as a testbed to explore various unique opportunities. The Amazon Pay app in India, for instance, also sells movie and flight tickets.

More TechCrunch

Get the industry’s biggest tech news

Every weekday and Sunday, you can get the best of TechCrunch’s coverage.

Startups are the core of TechCrunch, so get our best coverage delivered weekly.

The latest Fintech news and analysis, delivered every Tuesday.

TechCrunch Mobility is your destination for transportation news and insight.

By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice.

Tags

Featured Article

News outlets are accusing Perplexity of plagiarism and unethical web scraping

In the age of generative AI, when chatbots can provide detailed answers to questions based on content pulled from the internet, the line between fair use and plagiarism, and between routine web scraping and unethical summarization, is a thin one.  Perplexity AI is a startup that combines a search engine…

Figma disables its AI design feature that appeared to be ripping off Apple’s Weather app

The Make Design feature is available within Figma’s software and will generate UI (user interface) layouts and components from text prompts.

Computing and shielding startups join forces to put AI-capable chips in space

Sophisticated spacecraft often run on shockingly outdated computing systems: consider that the Perseverance rover runs on a PowerPC 750, the processor famous for running on iMacs in the late 1990s. …

Industry Ventures raises a $900M fund for investing in small, early-stage VCs and their breakout startups

The venture fundraising trend in 2024 is fairly clear by now: Large, established VC firms are continuing to attract capital from limited partners, while smaller, newer funds are finding it…

Husband-and-wife former Olympians target $50M for new fund to invest in influencer-led consumer brands

Samyr Laine and Ayanna Alexander-Laine now put their grit and determination to work for founders wanting to launch and scale consumer brands.

As the AI boom gobbles up power, Phaidra is helping companies manage datacenter power more efficiently

Electricity demand is booming on account of AI. In a May 2024 report, Goldman Sachs predicted that data centers will use 8% of the U.S.’s total power supply by 2030, up from…

Sensorita uses digital twins to help waste management companies streamline construction waste

The amount of waste produced by the construction industry adds up to more than a third of the overall waste produced each year in the European Union. And it’s no…

Beauty tech startup Boldhue raises capital to ship its ‘Keurig for makeup’

Boldhue’s device essentially scans your face and dispenses a customized foundation formula that matches your skin tone.

Indian edtech Unacademy cuts another 250 jobs

Unacademy is slashing another 250 jobs in latest round of cuts as Indian edtech sector continues to struggle.Q

Apple adds support for new languages across lock screen, keyboard and search on iOS 18

Apple unveiled iOS 18 last month at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC). Since then, the company has released two developer betas in the last few weeks with extended support for…

Anthropic looks to fund a new, more comprehensive generation of AI benchmarks

Anthropic is launching a program to fund the development of new types of benchmarks capable of evaluating the performance and impact of AI models, including generative models like its own…

Senators urge owners, partners, and VC backers of fintech Synapse to restore customers’ access to their money

A group of senators has banded together to urge Synapse’s owners and bank and fintech partners to “immediately restore customers’ access to their money.” As part of their demands, the…

TechCrunch Space: Star spangled

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. I hope everyone has a fantastic July 4 this week. Go eat a hot dog. Read my story from last week on the…

Spotify tests emergency alerts in Sweden

Music, podcasts, audiobooks…emergency alerts? Spotify’s latest test has the streaming app venturing into new territory with a test of an emergency alerts system in its home market of Sweden. According…

YouTube now lets you request removal of AI-generated content that simulates your face or voice

Simply submitting the request for a takedown doesn’t necessarily mean the content will be removed, however.

Fintech company Wise says some customers affected by Evolve Bank data breach

The news highlights that the fallout from the Evolve data breach on third-party companies — and their customers and users —  is still unclear.

Supreme Court sends Texas and Florida social media regulation laws back to lower courts

The Supreme Court on Monday vacated two judicial decisions concerning Republican-backed laws from Florida and Texas aimed at limiting social media companies’ ability to moderate content on their platforms. The…

Gifting on-demand startup Afloat goes nationwide

Afloat, a gift delivery app that lets you shop from local stores and have gifts delivered to a loved one on the same day, is now available across the U.S. The…

Drive brand impact with a Side Event at TechCrunch Disrupt

Exciting news for tech enthusiasts and innovators! TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 is just around the corner, and we have an incredible opportunity for you to elevate your brand’s visibility. How? By…

Meta changes its label from ‘Made with AI’ to ‘AI info’ to indicate use of AI in photos

After Meta started tagging photos with a “Made with AI” label in May, photographers complained that the social networking company had been applying labels to real photos where they had…

Robinhood snaps up Pluto to add AI tools to its investing app

Investment app Robinhood is adding more AI features for investors with its acquisition of AI-powered research platform Pluto Capital, Inc. Announced on Monday, the company says that Pluto will allow…

Vaire Computing raises $4.5M for ‘reversible computing’ moonshot which could drastically reduce energy needs

Vaire Computing, based in London and Seattle, is betting that chips that can do reversible computing are going to be the way forward for the world.

Meta’s ‘pay or consent’ model fails EU competition rules, Commission finds

The EC has found that Meta’s “pay or consent” offer to Facebook and Instagram users in Europe does not comply with the bloc’s DMA.

Japan’s SmartHR raises $140M Series E as strong demand for HR tech boosts its ARR to $100M

The round was led by KKR and Teachers’ Ventures Growth, an investment arm of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

MIT’s soft robotic system is designed to pack groceries

RoboGrocery combines computer vision with a soft robotic gripper to bag a wide range of different items.

AI-powered scams and what you can do about them

This is by no means a complete list, just a few of the most obvious tricks that AI can supercharge.

Identity.vc is bringing capital and community to Europe’s LGBTQ+ venture ecosystem

Identity.vc writes checks that range from €250,000 to €1.5 million into companies from the pre-seed to Series A stages.

Featured Article

Robot cats, dogs and birds are being deployed amid an ‘epidemic of loneliness’

In the early 1990s, a researcher at Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology began work on what would become Paro. More than 30 years after its development, the doe-eyed seal pup remains the best-known example of a therapeutic robot for older adults. In 2011, the robot reached…

Apple reportedly working to bring AI to the Vision Pro

Apple’s AI plans go beyond the previously announced Apple Intelligence launches on the iPhone, iPad and Mac. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, the company is also working to bring these…

ServiceNow’s generative AI solutions are taking advantage of the data on its own platform

One of the earlier SaaS adherents to generative AI has been ServiceNow, which has been able to take advantage of the data in its own platform to help build more…

About

Legal

Trending Tech Topics

Powered by WordPress VIP