[Forbes India] Toffee's Rohan Kumar: Bicycle thieves: The surprising growth engine for Toffee Insurance

Toffee, an insurtech startup in India providing accessible, digitized insurance policies to its consumers, was featured in Forbes India for one of their highest - and, perhaps most unique - insured products. According to the article, a staggering number of the insurtech startup's products are sold against cycle theft, a rising issue in India.

Though there is no official data for cycle thefts across cities, Toffee co-founder and CEO Rohan Kumar reckons the numbers are high. The reason: About 60 percent of insurance products sold by Toffee Insurance are against cycle theft. Such a high percentage, in a little under two years, is staggering. Toffee’s second biggest insurance product is for backpacks, and third on the pecking order is cover for dengue. The cycle is driving growth for Toffee, which was started in July 2017, and has been selling this insurance cover through its network of over 1,000 cycle dealers across 120 cities.

The Gurugram-headquartered startup now plans to step on the pedal. The plan is to reach out to police stations across smaller towns across India, and sensitise consumers who have lost their cycles. “The size of the bicycle market in India is pegged at 16.3 million units,” says Kumar. The problem, he explains, is simple. Though people took their cycling seriously, buying insurance never crossed their minds.

The second problem was even more unique. Registering a complaint against cycle theft was perceived to be frivolous, and the ones who did were ridiculed. “It’s not a joke,” says Kumar. Over 98 percent of bicycles in India are priced below Rs 8,000 and are mostly used for commuting. A paltry 30,000 units are premium cycles. “An insurance premium as low as Rs 180 per year protects your cycle against theft and damage,” he says. About 20 million bicycles, he adds, are less than two years old.

Read the full article in Forbes India here.