Insurance startup Finhaat has raised $3 million in its seed round led by venture capital firm Omnivore and early-stage venture capital firm Kettleborough VC. Finhaat’s co-founder Vinod Singh said the company will look to expand further by building technological models, improving product experience, introducing new products, increasing its partner base, and hiring talent for new verticals with the new round of funding.
“We are determined to transform the financial services space for the underserved,” said Singh in a statement.
According to Jinesh Shah, Managing Partner at Omnivore, financial inclusion remains dismally low in rural India with just 11.5 per cent of households having net savings, and under 10 per cent having life insurance.
“This vulnerability is most acute in low-income segments, especially for farmers confronting myriad risks. Yet, tailored products to mitigate uncertainties and boost financial stability and growth are few and far between,” said Shah as Finhaat addresses this challenge.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) financial inclusion index (FI) had increased to 60.1 per cent in 2022-23 (April-March) from 56.4 per cent due to an improvement in usage and quality dimensions, indicating deepening financial inclusion in India. The annual FI-Index stood at 53.9 as of March 2021, as FE had reported in September this year.
Moreover, according to the G20 Global Partnership for Financial Inclusion (GPFI) report prepared by the World Bank in September this year, the Jan Dhan, Aadhaar, and Mobile (JAM) trinity had propelled India’s financial inclusion rate from 25 per cent in 2008 to over 80 per cent of adults in the past six years, which otherwise would have taken at least 47 years.
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