Launching Plum's suite of personal insurance products

A little over five years ago, during our first conversation at the Third Wave in Koramangala, Saurabh and I realized that we both wanted to build an institution that would stay relevant and drive real impact for the next few decades. Healthcare was an area that had great potential and was something we both cared deeply about.

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Therefore, we started Plum with the simple, yet impactful mission of positively impacting the health and financial well-being of every Indian. 

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We began by helping startup founders like us care for their team’s health with insurance and health benefits. Thanks to the trust, feedback, and advocacy of our early customers, we’ve made great strides since then. 

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Today, we cater to the healthcare needs of 4500+ of the country’s fastest-growing organizations, including startups like Zomato and CRED, institutions like Tata, and multinational companies like Twilio, Atlassian, and Rippling. We serve 500,000+ lives, and have processed 100,000+ claims – with our commitment to empathetic claims experience resulting in a Claims Net Promoter Score of 79 (the industry average is 19). We’ve also made great progress in our healthcare goals, with 100,000+ doctor consultations on our telehealth product and 60,000+ individuals choosing better health outcomes through Plum Perks – be it health checkups, discounted medicines, or just healthier food options. 

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Over the last few years, we’ve learned about what it takes to build meaningful experiences for India’s most health-conscious citizens. From consulting with them to craft effective insurance policies to tinkering with our product so that every interaction is intuitive, to seamless claims experiences – every client has held us to the highest of standards. 

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This isn’t a responsibility that we take lightly, and I’m proud of every single Plum-ber who has built this organization with us. I am doubly proud today, because these earned secrets, coupled with the validation of our customers, has led to us launching Personal Insurance, our newest product line.

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Starting today, Plum users can experience the same consultative experience during purchase and speak to our 100+ strong claims and support team for their personal coverage needs across health and life insurance. 

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A natural next step towards our mission

Plum Personal is a natural extension of our primary mission – We want to make coverage simple, accessible, and transparent for millions. 

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With medical costs rising by 14% annually, affordable health coverage is more crucial than ever. Close to 400 million Indians fall into the ‘missing middle’ —earning too much for government assistance but lacking employer-sponsored insurance.

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Employer-sponsored insurance has grown tenfold in the past decade, but there remains an urgent need for increased personal insurance adoption to complement it. 

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Our goal isn’t just about selling policies. Purchase should be a proactive decision, and not prompted by fear. We will not spam users, or push policies to meet numbers. 

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We’d much rather offer a product and experience that prioritizes the user’s health and their family’s. For instance, not only will users be able to experience their insurance coverage on the app, but will also get exclusive access to all other health benefits on it to empower them in their pursuit of better health outcomes. 

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By integrating insurance with preventive care, we expect to reduce hospitalization rates among our members by 30% over the next five years. 

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While we’re announcing this today, we’ve been operating in beta for some time now. This was always on our roadmap, but we decided to prioritize it because hundreds of customers, partners, and friends wrote to us asking for personal insurance advice and support.

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Over the past few months, we’ve been experimenting with everything from processes to products — primarily to understand where Plum can truly add value, and it has been a fantastic learning journey for us.

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For example -

• What happens when an individual moves on from their org?
• What about family members who would like to buy personal policies?
• How can people learn what type of coverage they need?

Our product team took a lot of these early learnings to build a plethora of features and optimisations that are already live on the app – read more about (in)Dependent Login.

To us, Personal insurance was the natural next step. 

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A responsibility we do not take for granted 

Having the opportunity to influence the lives of every Indian isn’t something we take for granted.

And to lead this journey, I’m excited to share that we’ve brought Atul onboard as Head of Personal Insurance. His answer to our first question about insurance sales cemented our belief that he was the right person for the job.

Paraphrasing his answer: “Buying insurance is a major life decision, and our approach should reflect that. No spam. No pushy sales. Just honest, expert-backed guidance so customers can make informed choices for their future.”

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With over a decade of leadership experience at The/Nudge Institute, Belong.co, and Quizziz, he brings deep expertise in consumer engagement and digital-first distribution models. I’m excited to see how he grows along with us. 

The mission is daunting, and the journey will come with challenges. However, I’m confident that our principle of listening to the user and putting their needs first will win the trust and validation of the market – as it has with all our other products. 

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If you’d like to explore Plum Personal, click here: plumhq.com/plum-personal

If you're intrigued by tough problem statements and want to experience what it is like to build a startup within a startup, drop me a DM on LinkedIn or write to us at join@plumhq.com

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