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

Major IT outage takes out banks, airlines and businesses across the world

Businesses worldwide on Friday are reporting IT outages, including Windows “blue screen of death” errors on their computers, in what has already become one of the most widespread IT disruptions…

Paytm loss widens and revenue shrinks as it grapples with regulatory clampdown

Indian fintech Paytm’s struggles won’t seem to end. The company on Friday reported that its revenue declined by 36% and its loss more than doubled in the first quarter as…

Fandango founder dies in fall from Manhattan skyscraper

J. Michael Cline, the co-founder of Fandango and multiple other startups over his multi-decade career, died after falling from a Manhattan hotel, New York’s Deputy Commissioner of Public Information tells…

Apple Vision Pro debuts immersive content featuring NBA players, The Weeknd and more

Apple on Thursday announced its upcoming lineup of immersive video content for the Vision Pro. The list includes behind-the-scenes footage of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, an immersive performance by…

Elon Musk is now a villain in Joe Biden’s presidential campaign

Biden centering Musk in his campaign is a notable escalation, considering he spent most of his presidency seemingly pretending the billionaire didn’t exist.

Waymo wants to bring robotaxis to SFO, emails show

Waymo would need a ground transportation permit to operate at SFO, which has yet to be approved.

Why it made sense for an online community college to raise venture capital

When Tade Oyerinde first set out to fundraise for his startup, Campus, a fully accredited online community college, it was incredibly difficult. VCs have backed for-profit education companies in the…

PE firm PartnerOne paid $28M for HeadSpin, a fraction of its $1.1B valuation set by ICONIQ and Dell Technologies Capital

Canadian private equity firm PartnerOne paid $28.2 million for HeadSpin, a mobile app testing startup whose founder was sentenced for fraud earlier this year, according to documents viewed by TechCrunch.…

Meta puts a halt to training its generative AI tools in Brazil 

Meta has suspended the use of its AI assistant after Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) banned the company from training its AI models on personal data from Brazilians. The…

ChatGPT: Everything you need to know about the AI-powered chatbot

ChatGPT, OpenAI’s text-generating AI chatbot, has taken the world by storm since its launch in November 2022. What started as a tool to hyper-charge productivity through writing essays and code…

WazirX halts withdrawals after losing $230 million, nearly half its reserves

The Mumbai-based firm said one of its multisig wallets had suffered a security breach, and it was temporarily pausing all withdrawals from the platform.

Fisker scores a win, an AV startup reboots in Texas, and why Elon pushed the Tesla robotaxi reveal

This week’s TechCrunch Mobility looks at Fisker scoring a win, an AV startup rebooting in Texas, why Elon is pushing the Tesla robotaxi reveal and more.

What is Apple Intelligence, when is it coming and who will get it?

Apple Intelligence was designed to leverage things that generative AI already does well, like text and image generation, to improve upon existing features.

The EU just re-elected its president for another five years — here’s what that means for tech

The European Union’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, was confirmed in the role for another five years Thursday after parliamentarians voted overwhelmingly to re-elect her. The scale of her support…

Communia bets social media can be good for you

Olivia DeRamus is flipping the script: What if scrolling through social media didn’t make us miserable? What if, especially for women, social media could actually make us feel more supported?…

TikTok fast-tracks artist account creation for DistroKid members

TikTok is partnering with the music distribution service DistroKid to fast-track the creation of artist accounts for members. The ByteDance-owned short video platform introduced an Artist Account feature last year…

Ford’s EV plans are in flux once again as it invests $3B into its biggest trucks

Ford is still pushing forward on electrification, notably by increasing hybrid options.

OpenAI unveils GPT-4o mini, a smaller and cheaper AI model

OpenAI introduced GPT-4o mini on Thursday, its latest small AI model. The company says GPT-4o mini, which is cheaper and faster than OpenAI’s current cutting-edge AI models, is being released…

Featured Article

USPS shared customer postal addresses with Meta, LinkedIn and Snap

The U.S. Postal Service confirmed it took action to “remediate” the data sharing following a TechCrunch investigation.

GM CEO Mary Barra is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

The automotive industry is in the midst of dramatic technological change as companies seek out new ways to make money beyond building and selling gas-powered cars. And GM CEO and…

Amazon Prime Day 2024 sales hit record $14.2 billion

Amazon’s Prime Day event clocked record sales this year, as U.S. consumers spent $14.2 billion across July 16 and 17, according to Adobe Analytics. This marks an 11% jump from…

NASA cancels $450M Viper moon mission, dashing ice prospecting dreams

The now-scrapped moon mission would have been the U.S. space agency’s first resource-mapping mission off planet Earth.

Without this company’s technology, future fusion power plants might never light up

Marathon Fusion emerges from stealth with a plan to help fusion power plants extract tritium, a necessary fuel.

Hackers could create traffic jams thanks to flaw in traffic light controller, researcher says

A security researcher found that some traffic lights controllers are exposed on the internet and could be manipulated.

WHAM! Nuclear fusion experiment hits new record for magnet strength

Strong magnets are essential for the type of fusion power being pursued by Commonwealth Fusion Systems and a number of other startups.

Fintech startup Coast lands $40M just 4 months after its last $25M raise

Coast, a startup that describes itself as “a financial services platform for the future of transportation,” has raised $40 million in Series B funding — just four months after announcing…

Google accused of misleading consumers to grab more data for ads

Italy’s competition watchdog is investigating how Google gets user consent in order to link their activity across different services for ad profiling.

Featured Article

Proton launches ‘privacy-first’ AI writing assistant for email that runs on-device

Proton has launched a new AI-enabled writing assistant that helps users compose emails based on simple prompts.

Samsung to acquire UK-based knowledge graph startup Oxford Semantic Technologies

The Korean tech giant is acquiring Oxford Semantic Technologies, a U.K.-based knowledge graph startup that has built an AI reasoning engine.

Artificial Agency raises $16M to use AI to make NPCs feel more realistic in video games

A team of former Google DeepMind researchers are betting that their unique behavior engine for NPCs will make games more fun and dynamic.

About

Legal

Trending Tech Topics

Powered by WordPress VIP