Avi Basu said he saw insurance being marketed to the wealthiest people on the planet, but people who weren’t wealthy, often the people who were also responsible for the world’s food, weren’t insured.
Wingsure aims to fill that gap by providing coverage for farmers in India. The Wingsure platform operates like a digital broker, with the insurance companies on the platform backing all of the policies.
“This sort of proves the point that digital insurance is the way to go,” said Basu, the founder and CEO of Wingsure. “You can't walk around in fields and reach the farmers right now. And you can always reach them on their phone, because a phone is a very important farming equipment today.”
Basu’s history is in telecommunications, but he joined forces with Francois Xavier-Hay, who has a history in insurance to form Wingsure. Then, knowing that they would need more resources, Basu went to SRI International Ventures on the recommendation of a friend.
Wingsure recently expanded their artificial intelligence and augmented reality capabilities. The expansion of these capabilities will allow the Wingsure app to quickly process claims by using SRI’s computer vision, geospatial and AR technology, which can confirm crop damage, claim validity and settle, according to a press release.
Basu is disappointed that the pandemic means he has not been able to travel to India as frequently as he used to as Wingsure relies on the trust of the farmers that use it. The platform is specialized to their needs.
“You have to earn [the farmers’] trust, because the trust deficit is huge today. If you and I don’t have full faith in insurance, why would a farmer trust insurance?” said Basu. “Because sometimes the claims process can get really delayed and complicated. The promise of insurance is to pay claims promptly. So, our idea is to include all aspects of the farmers’ life and livelihood in the middle of everything we do, and then start looking at how to create insurance products.”
Wingsure also aims to onboard one million farmers in the next few months, Basu said in an email.
Looking forward, Wingsure will expand out of India into other parts of the world, according to Basu, who mentioned Africa specifically. While insurance is regulated differently in different areas, he believes that the technology can stay mostly consistent across the world.
“If you build a great product, it actually manages problems for most of the world, right?” said Basu.
