RazorpayX and Plum Makes Health Insurance Affordable for Startups

Plum, India’s largest employee health insurance platform, announced a partnership with RazorpayX, to provide group health insurance benefits for companies with teams as small as two employees. Due to the low employee count, health insurance is prohibitively expensive and inaccessible for the startup segment. Most insurance providers offer group medical insurance to large enterprises, spreading the risk among a large base of employees. To shatter this glass ceiling, Plum and RazorpayX have launched a payroll-cum-insurance product - RazorpayX Health Insurance to provide group health insurance benefits for companies with teams as small as two employees. The first-of-its-kind insurance product will be provided under RazorpayX Payroll, an application within the RazorpayX business banking platform. 

With RazorpayX Health Insurance, companies can purchase best-in-class health benefits at affordable premiums and compete with large enterprises in the talent market. Managing insurance from onboarding to exit of employees is automated, eliminating multiple phone calls and emails from agents. The partnership will help accelerate the growth of SMEs in India and aims to cover thousands of startups and SMEs in the next year.  

Abhishek Poddar, Co-founder, Plum, said, “Plum’s partnership with RazorpayX is a game-changer for startups to attract and retain talent. We are thrilled to partner with the RazorpayX Payroll team in their goal of digitizing the finance stack and accelerating SME growth in India. Plum brings its expertise in making employee insurance accessible and affordable for SMEs, along with a high-quality claims experience for employees. We have a vision of taking India's health insurance penetration numbers to 100%, and this strategic partnership is a giant step in that direction. Together, I’m positive we can build something large and impactful for the SME ecosystem.”

Shashank Mehta, General Manager and Head of RazorpayX, said, "Startup founders and business owners have been losing time and money by incurring overheads on repetitive financial tasks like payroll, taxes, bookkeeping, and more. Adding to this is health insurance, which has become a pressing concern, especially in these times. While most health insurance plans are made to suit the needs of large enterprises, small businesses struggle to find the right solution for their employees. With an intent to break this barrier, our partnership with Plum will enable them with custom-built insurance coverage at affordable premiums. At RazorpayX, we want digital-first startups and SMEs to focus on growth, while we reduce their manual work and overheads via our banking & finance automated solutions."

He added, "We believe a partnership such as this will make it easier for small businesses to safeguard employees and families, while hiring and retaining the best talent - all from one single platform."

The insurance plans from Plum and RazorpayX come with three options, a Starter plan that covers the basics and is light on wallet, an Essential plan that includes the cover for pre-existing disease from day 1, and a Premium plan that covers benefits like maternity from day 1.

HR teams and employees find the current insurance purchase process cumbersome and inefficient because it isn’t built for digital-first companies. The bundling of health insurance within native digital products, or embedded insurance, can remove inefficiencies associated with traditional insurance by bringing the company and the insurer closer together with better data, trust, and communication. 

Plum has built partner APIs to enable HR management systems, payroll platforms, and other SME/startup products to offer insurance to their customers within existing systems. Several platforms that serve startups and SMEs are currently integrating with Plum, which helps embed insurance into products in less than a week.