COCO By DHFL General Insurance – Pioneering the Digital Revolution in Insurance Domain

Vijay Sinha,MD & CEO, COCO by DHFL General Insurance Limited | Insights Success | Business magazine in India

The imminent rise of the Fintech companies over the last decade is rapidly transforming the face of the Indian Insurance industry. Although technology always stood as the backbone of the traditional insurance industry, its prominence was limited at the backend. Over the years, as the consumers have been more adaptive towards this sector and technology taking the center stage, the Indian Insurance industry is set on the right trajectory of growth.
As technology continues to play a pivotal role in various financial verticals, InsureTech has evolved as the latest platform for the insurance industry. Much like the e-commerce industry, the insurance sector has taken colossal steps by embracing cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and lot more. Today, along with empowering the buyers by offering a plethora of offerings, technology is assisting the customers to have complete control and access the online insurance platform in the most secure way. From enhanced customer experience, recommendations, and offering tailored packages as per the requirement of the customers, the growth of the Indian Industry has been phenomenal.
One such player that has embraced technology to the core and has been hugely successful in converging customer’s expectation in a very short span of time is COCO By DHFL – General Insurance Limited. Launched in November 2017, it is headquartered in the business capital city of Mumbai. COCO stands amongst the most talked about player within the Indian insurance fraternity. By the end of the first financial year, the GWP was INR 141 Crore, a feat that was seldom witnessed from a new entrant in the industry specifically in the de-tariffed regime.
The InsurTech, COCO, within a short span, has managed to grab the eyeballs by winning countless accolades and appreciations at various platforms. It was recognized amongst Top-10 Promising Insurance Startups by Silicon India Startup City Magazine in 2018. Other prestigious awards include:

  • Brand Excellence in BFSI category – CMO Asia in Singapore
  • Mobby’s Award – COCO launch on November 30, 2018
  • Drivers of Digital Award – COCODrive Launch Campaign
  • DIGIXX Award – Best use of Digital in BFSI

These accolades are just the foundation for a burgeoning InsurTech juggernaut in the private general insurance space that has just begun its endeavor so emphatically that the future is immensely revolutionary and profitable.
The Leader
With more than three decades of professional experience, Vijay Sinha is the founding Managing Director & Chief Executive Officer of COCO by DHFL General Insurance Ltd. Throughout his illustrious career, he has been a strategic business leader who led key leadership positions at prestigious companies like LIC, Tata AIA Life Insurance Company, Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance Company, and Dewan Housing Finance Ltd. Right from streamlining complex distribution development, defining corporate marketing & communication strategies, creating sales & distribution network and defining moments through Product Development, Project Management, and Sales Process Re-engineering, he has managed it all.
One of the key highlights of his journey at COCO was his expertise in launching the venture without any foreign alliance. He opined ‘Digitisation’ to be the future and worked diligently to put an Insurance manufacturer into the InsurTech space. Earlier, he is credited with rebuilding the Bajaj Allianz brand story – with elevating its customer experience to world-class standards. His sprawling career is defined by four core elements – Business acumen, an assiduous eye for detail, the ability to invigorate multifarious organizations spread across various cultures, and a vision for what should be – rather than what is defined!
Creating a Mark in the Industry
The brand name COCO is a combination of ‘Connected Coverage’ that emerges from brand purpose of ‘Connectivity’ in a ‘Digital World’, and ‘Coverage’ that is wholly based on their offering of insurance protection. COCO is the forerunner in the Indian InsurTech space and is geared towards a digital future where customers can truly understand the insurance they buy and experience what can’t be matched by traditional channels.
Rather than focusing on a ‘2-minute buying’ concept, COCO had a different outlook right from the inception that has led to such market accreditations bestowed on the company. The differentiation and uniqueness delivered by COCO in the areas of property & casualty business is nothing short of a welcome disruption for the customer as well as for the industry.
By leveraging the capabilities and power of digital technology, it has crafted an ecosystem that recommends products and coverage which are customizable as per the customers’ needs & requirement.  Furthermore, it’s easy-to-explore-online-platform assists customers to make an informed choice on the same.
The company is soon going to launch plethora of ‘micro-moment’ products that provides the buyer a cover from specific risks. The USP of these categories of products is the freedom of choice given to the buyers without forcing them to buy pre-bundled rigid packages. Another flagship product that is to be unveiled is COCOCure – a dedicated health insurance product that aims to disrupt the health cover space by its innovative features. Syncing the intuitiveness and customizability that is offered under the Motor Insurance products (COCORide and COCODrive), COCOCure is all set to simplify and transform the current health insurance eco-system.
Bridging the Gaps
The journey of the Indian insurance industry that commenced over a decade earlier has witnessed a paradigm shift with regards to the process and being pro-active in embracing a customer-centric approach. Today, a majority of prominent players are offering a clutch of value-added services beyond insurance schemes such as customer care packages, roadside assistance, and more.
As a dominant InsureTech player in the insurance sector, COCO is a forerunner in incorporating innovative concepts by walking an extra mile that differentiates themselves in this competitive technological era. The entity has identified three valuable areas that are yet to be offered to the buyers.
True Customization: COCO emphasizes educating the buyers about the salient features of the add-on services and why it can be beneficial for them. With extensive research, the company is able to understand customer profiles and suggests relevant add-ons accordingly.
Automation: Banking on the new-age technologies like AI and ML, the entity presents an interactive online platform analyzing consumer behavior data to provide an insurance plan that makes sense and engages customers in the most interesting ways. Content, user flows, and suggestions on the website are customized based on the information collected from each user’s hyper-local profile.
Ultra-competitive Market Rate: Insurance products from COCO allow customers to customize the insurance plan as per their requirements and facilitates the purchasing of these products directly from the web portal. This allows the customers to only pay for what they require without having to pay for rigid, pre-bundled insurance policies.
The Road Ahead
Analyzing the performance and scope of the insurance industry in India, COCO carries a very optimistic outlook of the future. As the industry is growing at a CAGR of 17% since privatization, there is a huge potential for the players. With the emerging InsurTechs, the penetrations through digital mediums are going to speed up the growth rate.