It will apply for corporate agency licence that enables issuance of insurance policies to customers
Preventive healthcare startup GOQii is now eyeing a larger role in the insurance sector. In a first of its kind initiative for a fitness brand, the company plans to apply for a corporate agency licence with Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) for selling insurance.
GOQii sells a slew of wearable devices including fitness bands and a steps tracker that is combined with fitness coaching and doctor services.
“For us, preventive healthcare and health management is the goal. Insurance companies are interested in improving the health of policyholders. If any disease is prevented or delayed, it is good for the insurer,” said Vishal Gondal, founder, GOQii.
Becoming a corporate agent will enable the company to distribute insurance products to customers.
Currently, Max Bupa Health Insurance has partnered with GOQii and global reinsurance major Swiss Re to provide health and wellness solutions to its customers. They have a plan GoActive that is a digital health service led insurance plan. Gondal said that they will launch a similar product with a life insurance company in the near future.
“In the next few years, we will partner with multiple insurers. Like the credit score by CIBIL, we are trying to something similar in the insurance business for health scores,” he added.
GOQii has worked with Swiss Re to create a health risk assessment model that is used for pricing health insurance. He added that the fitness score will be used to provide discounts to customers.
“GOQii vision is to make people healthier and use the data to help the users. We are doing this under the regulator’s approval. This is volunteered data from the customer and unlike other platforms which collect data, here there is a clear Incentive for getting the data,” he added.
In the next 3-5 years, wearable devices and mobile phones will be able to provide 80-90 percent diagnostic information to the customer. Gondal said that they can also detect blood pressure and will be launching more devices that can capture different sets of data.
“This will change the face of healthcare and insurance. With each user having so much data, pricing structure of insurance will completely change. Fit people will get insurance at a cheaper rate while the others will have a compelling reason to change their habits,” he added.
In the future, Gondal said that insurers will play a bigger role in keeping policyholders fit. Unlike the current model where policyholders come into the system equipped with wearables, he added that insurers could issue wearables to customers in the future.
