Plum Benefits Insurance Brokers, an employee health benefits startup, has raised 1.93bn rupees (US$20.5m) in a Series B funding round led by Peak XV Partners, with participation from existing investor Tanglin Venture Partners, which increased its stake, and new investor GMO Venture Partners, the company announced on 26 March.
The fundraise follows Plum’s first full year of EBITDA and cash flow profitability, marking an operational milestone for the Bengaluru-based company, which was founded in 2019 and now serves more than 6,000 organisations across India, including CRED, Meesho, PhonePe, Swiggy, and Zomato.
Plum said it would deploy the new capital across talent, technology, enterprise-grade security, and AI-driven claims operations, while deepening integrations with HR and payroll systems. The company is also expanding beyond claims into preventive care, primary care, mental wellness, and telehealth, broadening its proposition for enterprise clients.
The company said 78% of claims are resolved without human intervention, up from 34% in 2022 and well above an industry norm of under 20%. When insurers deny claims, Plum contests them on behalf of policyholders, with 88% of disputed claims resulting in a favourable outcome recovering more than 100m rupees in previously denied claims in the past year alone.
GV Ravishankar, Managing Director at Peak XV, said Plum has built a fundamentally better product and customer experience, from onboarding and coverage design to claims resolution and preventive care. “We believe its product depth and operational discipline position it to define the future of employee benefits in India.”
According to the company’s Co-Founder and CEO, Abhishek Poddar, the claims experience has been the key focus since the start. “Six years in, that belief has shaped the product, the business, and the outcomes we have delivered for customers,” he added.
The funding news coincides with growing regulatory scrutiny of India’s insurance claims landscape. The Council of Insurance Ombudsmen’s FY2025 annual report showed that standalone health insurers, namely Star Health, Care Health, and Niva Bupa, accounted for the highest volumes of complaints among peers. On a per-lakh policyholder basis, Star Health logged 51 complaints, versus 17 for Care and 18 for Niva Bupa.
A recent survey report revealed that more than eight in 10 consumers who purchased insurance through online platforms in India experienced “dark patterns”, deceptive design tactics that manipulate users into unintended actions, over the past 24 months.
