Policybazaar is building a digital-first platform to make insurance simpler, more transparent, and accessible to everyone, tackling the industry’s traditional opacity and misselling challenges.
Policybazaar was created as a digital-first platform to make insurance simpler and more accessible. By leveraging technology, the company aimed to strip away the inefficiencies and opacity of the traditionally offline industry, enabling fairer underwriting and wider distribution. This digital transformation has had a significant impact, with over 80 per cent of urban consumers now researching policies online, driving massive growth in financial inclusion, particularly in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Supported by regulatory initiatives from the IRDAI, Policybazaar has played a key role in shifting the market towards informed consumer choice and making financial protection available to households across India with just a few clicks.
This week, we speak to Yashish Dahiya, Chairman & Group CEO of PB Fintech, about his journey from a personal mission to correct misselling in the insurance industry to leading one of India’s most significant fintech players. A former CEO and accomplished triathlete, Dahiya was motivated by his own family’s negative experiences with opaque financial products, a realisation that sparked the creation of Policybazaar.
What motivated you to start Policybazaar, and what were the biggest hurdles you faced?
The motivation to start Policybazaar came from a deeply personal space. I had seen firsthand how my father and several retired officers invested their hard-earned savings in products that didn’t deliver the promised returns, even though they looked clean on paper. That experience exposed a serious lack of transparency and reliability in the insurance space. While the experience was personal, I understood that the problem was all too prevalent. It was clear to me that people deserved a service that offered clarity, transparency, and most importantly, trust.
When we started, insurance was primarily an offline business, and the idea of a digital-first platform was completely new. We saw an opportunity to make insurance simpler, more transparent, and accessible to everyone. Buying insurance online was almost unheard of at that time. Misselling and misinformation was also a challenge that we had to overcome. Those early years were tough but they laid the foundation for Policybazaar to become a credible and trusted platform.
Why does the insurance sector, perhaps more than others, require urgent digital transformation?
Insurance, at its core, is not a physical product. It is a promise of security that needs to come through in the future. That is why I have always believed this industry requires digital transformation urgently. For too long, insurance in India was sold through layers of opacity and high entry barriers.
Technology has helped strip away those inefficiencies. It enables underwriting and distribution to be fairer, wider and far more efficient. More importantly, it ensures that access to protection is not restricted by geography, privilege, or lack of awareness, but available to every household with just a few clicks.
What impact have you seen from digitisation on transparency, accessibility, and consumer trust?
The true impact of this shift is best seen in how Indian families are engaging with insurance today. With over 80 per cent of urban consumers now researching policies online, people can instantly compare products, features and exclusions. Thanks to India’s 900 million+ internet users, this accessibility has driven massive growth in financial inclusion, with Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities leading the change. With growing digital adoption of insurance, it is clear that consumers have an affinity towards informed choices, which can only happen through digitisation.
The IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) has played a pivotal role in this transformation by implementing initiatives that promote digital adoption and streamline processes. This has helped make insurance more accessible, especially in underserved regions, by overcoming traditional barriers and reaching a broader audience.
How is the intersection of insurance and fintech evolving, and how can partnerships accelerate growth in under-served markets?
The intersection of insurance and fintech is opening remarkable opportunities, but I believe protection is a dedicated need in itself, not just an add-on. Embedded finance is certainly helping make access more seamless, ensuring that insurance can be offered at the right moments in a consumer’s financial journey. However, true protection requires more than convenience; it demands thoughtful planning, transparency and trust. Insurance is about providing lifelong security, and that cannot be reduced to a side feature.
This is where fintechs come into the picture. They have the power to transform insurance from a product people buy to a service they genuinely experience. Mobile-first platforms, digital payments and eKYC have already lowered barriers to access, while advanced analytics and data-sharing frameworks make it easier to design solutions that are fair, affordable and relevant to each consumer.
In markets that have long been underserved, these partnerships are bridging structural gaps. Data and digital tools allow insurance companies to reach people who were invisible to the formal financial system. For example, AI and alternative data can help assess risk even when someone has no prior history. When you combine that with the reach of fintech platforms and supportive government policies, you start to see insurance shift from being a privilege of the few to a right for every household.
How are new technologies like AI changing the insurance landscape?
AI is already transforming the way insurance is priced, distributed, and serviced. In the short term, the biggest gains are in efficiency and fairness. Claims that once took weeks can now be processed in hours because AI can analyse thousands of data points instantly. Fraud detection has also become far more effective, with AI flagging anomalies at a scale and speed traditional systems simply couldn’t.
Over time, AI will help design hyper-personalised products that are dynamically priced to reflect an individual’s real risk profile. In distribution, AI helps match customers to the right policies more quickly, improving outreach , while also helping reduce friction and manual dependency through digital channels. In servicing, AI enables faster and more available customer support via chatbots or sentiment analysis, all while keeping humans in the loop for oversight and quality.
What excites you most about the insurance opportunity in the Middle East?
What excites me most about the insurance opportunity in the Middle East is the potential to shape the next stage of growth in a region that is dynamic and still evolving. Per-capita insurance spends here are significantly higher than in India, highlighting both the appetite and readiness for protection.
Saudi Arabia, for instance, with its younger demographic, represents a demographic dividend. In fact, I think North Africa, Southeast Asia and the Middle East are the fertile grounds for the next stage of growth. It’s important to remember that consumers everywhere want the same things—convenience, clarity and a smooth experience—and technology makes it possible to deliver that consistently.
Historical ties with India also provide a foundation of trust and familiarity for new solutions in the Middle East. Combined with supportive policies and a collaborative ecosystem, these factors make the Middle East a remarkable opportunity to introduce innovative, tech-enabled insurance solutions.
How can regulators and industry leaders in the region balance innovation with consumer protection?
Innovation and consumer protection are not opposing forces; they are the twin engines of sustainable growth. The UAE’s work on open finance regulation is a strong step in this direction. By bringing regulators and the industry together to co-create the rules, the framework is designed to encourage innovation while safeguarding customer interests.
Open finance enables consumers to share their financial data securely, which in turn allows companies to design more personalised, transparent and affordable products. At the same time, regulatory guidelines ensure that data privacy, consent and accountability remain non-negotiable. As industry stakeholders, the onus is on us to lead with a customer-first approach. We must leverage technology not just for efficiency, but for simplicity and transparency. This means designing products that are simple, fair and ethical from the ground up.