Startups Enter Insurance Industry

Insurance industry plans to allow startups to handle 10% of Iran’s insurance market in the current fiscal year that started on March 21, said the head of Central Insurance company of Iran.
Gholamreza Soleimani said the domestic insurance market was worth 450 trillion rials ($3.7 billion) in the last fiscal year (March 2018-19) and insurers want to allow insurance startups to handle 10% of the market.
Insurance startups can act like brokerages and sell insurance policies, he said, adding that so far 13 start-ups have applied and some have already got the permit to operate, IRNA reported.
In recent years hundreds of startups and knowledge-based companies have opened in Iran with some offering insurance services, namely Bime Click, Bime Bazar, Bimito, and Fast Bime.
Soleimani underlined the need to draw on the ability and capacity of startups to expand the banking and insurance services, recalling efforts to give voice and space t to the gradually expanding start-ups. 
“In the past, startups were legally not allowed to operate in the insurance sector. Now they can offer a variety of insurance services,” he said. 
In November, Vice President for Science and Technology Sorena Sattari and the CII chief signed an agreement to ease regulations governing the work of startups and pave the way for the expansion of their activities in the growing insurance industry.