Synopsis: After delivering 13 consecutive quarters of 60%+ growth in health insurance, PB Fintech is entering a new phase where profitability, renewals, and adjacencies are scaling together. While health remains the core engine, term insurance, savings, and Paisabazaar are emerging as potential long-term growth drivers for the platform.
India’s digital insurance market is evolving rapidly, and Policybazaar appears to be strengthening its leadership with both scale and profitability. In FY26, the company grew insurance premiums by 42% to ₹29,934 crore, delivered ₹670 crore in profit, and continued its remarkable 60%+ health insurance growth for 13 straight quarters. But as Health matures into a proven business, investors are beginning to ask a bigger question: could term insurance, savings, or Paisabazaar become PolicyBazaar’s next major growth engine?
With a market cap of Rs 76,400 crore, the shares of PB Fintech Ltd are trading at Rs 1,650 and are trading at a PE of 114 compared to their industry’s PE of 21.7. The shares have given a return of more than 23% since their listing in November 2021.
A Platform That Is Growing Faster as It Gets Larger
Scale and profitability went hand-in-hand in FY26 for PB Fintech. It is worth noting that management reported growth of 42% in the company’s insurance premiums annually to ₹29,934 crore, while quarter-over-quarter premium growth was higher at 46%.
The standout performance was that the company saw 39% annual growth in its core online insurance premium but a higher 44% increase in Q4. Operating revenues in FY26 were ₹6,794 crore, while revenues on a quarterly basis were nearly ₹2,000 crore.
Consolidated PAT in FY26 was ₹670 crore or 2.2% of total premiums, which means that there is no longer a trade-off between growth and profitability at Policybazaar. As management stated, since November 2021, there has been a 48% CAGR in revenue and an improvement in margins from -58% to 10%, thus demonstrating the shift from scale to leverage.
Health Insurance Has Been the Core Growth Driver for Four Straight Years
During the call, when investors enquired about what was driving the growth at Policybazaar, the management made it abundantly clear that it was health insurance that continues to be the primary growth engine of its protection segment. Management disclosed that health insurance has clocked 60%+ growth for the last 13 consecutive quarters, an astounding feat that has been sustained over more than four years.
Within the protection premium, where the growth rate was 57%, health insurance was growing at a staggering 68%. Notably, management clarified that the growth was not due to any one-off event or any accounting issue. Rather, the growth had been engineered through innovations in the products offered, customer segmentation, and claims support.
Policybazaar mentioned that it has developed modular health insurance policies tailored towards younger individuals, senior citizens, customers with pre-existing medical conditions, and even Non-Resident Indians (NRIs).
More significantly, management reiterated that its claims-support offering is gaining traction among customers as its value proposition is being recognised, with many customers believing that purchasing through PolicyBazaar enhances the chances of claim approval. As per management, there is “a long way to go”, implying that health insurance could continue to drive growth for the company.
Why Claims Support Is Becoming Policybazaar’s Biggest Competitive Moat
Managers also spent a considerable part of the call explaining a topic that traditional investors would never think of as a key element of growth , claims support. It became known that at the current point in time, the insurance customer satisfaction rate of the company is consistently higher than 90%, according to management, a figure that sets it apart from its competitors.
At the present point in time, Policybazaar offers claims support services in more than 250 cities, while its strategy in this area continues to develop via the introduction of its PB Care+ network. Via this program, clients are referred to their preferred hospital partners, allowing for faster admission, no paperwork process, and support personnel at their disposal.
Managers explained that in the case of procedures that are scheduled in advance, such as cataract surgery, the client would be led directly into the hospital room where the procedure will take place without any interaction with the billing desk. It appears as though healthcare assistance will become an increasingly important factor that prompts clients to seek help from the company rather than traditional means.
Term Insurance Is Catching Up Faster Than Expected
As much as health continues to drive growth in the protection segment, management highlighted that the term ‘segment’ has now begun its acceleration phase. In the fourth quarter of FY26, term insurance recorded what management called “a great quarter”, driven by better execution and higher customer conversions.
According to management, these improvements were a result of better internal leadership and sales execution within the company. The exact growth numbers for the term were not provided independently, although management noted that the term is now “catching up fast” and can compete with health going forward into the year.
Additionally, one of the trends observed after the introduction of GST was customers attaching critical illness and accident riders on their term insurance policies, which increased transaction volumes. Another notable factor that led to higher conversions for term insurance was increased consumer awareness of protection products.
Renewal Revenues Are Quietly Becoming a Profit Machine
The most significant indicator of long-term investments is the renewals of the company’s revenue. The management emphasised the importance of renewals as one of the key sources of future earnings, and statistics prove their argument right.
In the past year, renewal revenue jumped from ₹668 crore to ₹935 crore, adding ₹267 crore to the bottom line. At the quarterly level, renewals amounted to ₹1,126 crore per year, whereas in the previous year the figure was only ₹689 crore, growing by 63%.
It should be noted that despite the fact that new businesses continue outgrowing renewals, the management believes that renewals are gradually turning into a stable and highly profitable source of earnings. Given that the cost of acquiring a new client is higher than renewals, there may emerge a good stream of recurring income.
Savings Is Showing Signs of Returning to Growth
However, there were challenges with savings for PolicyBazaar for several quarters, but FY26 seems to be a game-changer for savings. According to the management, savings are now “back to growth” due to increased consumer interest and improved positioning of the product.
Though management did not use the term “J-curve”, they clarified that they are repositioning savings products based on customer needs like education for children, retirement and house purchases. Instead of investing and earning returns, savings products like ULIPs with a waiver-of-premium facility are now being repurposed as a way of protecting these goals from any unforeseen events.
Furthermore, according to the management, ULIP persistency post five years for PolicyBazaar is at 70%-75%, which is much better than competing investment products. Even though savings are smaller compared to health and term insurances, the level of management comments made suggests that savings are about to embark on another growth cycle.
Paisabazaar Could Be Emerging as the Next Large Growth Engine
Despite the importance of insurance, the most significant new growth story from the transcript appears to be that of Paisabazaar. It was reported that Paisabazaar’s credit earnings increased by 7% year-over-year, while the disbursal number went up by 11% year-over-year.
More importantly, the segment became positive from an EBITDA perspective in Q4, and management sees it becoming significantly positive by FY27. Management stressed that the fixed cost base has been fairly steady and that future revenue growth will increasingly reflect the benefits of operating leverage.
At present, Paisabazaar caters to 5.8 crore customers, which translates to almost 50% of credit-active individuals in India. Instead of serving as a temporary origination platform, it seems to be transitioning into a customer engagement platform, where management has plans to introduce bonds, mutual funds, and other savings products over the next two to three years.
PB Partners and International Expansion Are Adding New Layers of Growth
Apart from the consumer-focused platform, Policybazaar’s ecosystem businesses are also expanding rapidly. According to the management, PB Partners now employs 450,000 advisors and covers around 99% of the PIN codes in India, which makes it one of the most diverse distribution channels in the country.
Moreover, as per the management, 83% of the premiums now arise from small-sized agents, as compared to only 50% in a year’s time, suggesting that the firm’s distribution channel strategy has been evolving towards finer segments and less reliance on larger agents.
In the international segment, the UAE segment of the business posted 54% growth year-on-year, largely supported by cross-border health insurance, life insurance, and claims assistance services. The management indicated that even under operational issues resulting from regional friction and cloud shutdowns, the UAE business managed to grow positively.
So Which Segment Could Become PolicyBazaar’s Next Growth Engine?
Health insurance stands out as being the company’s most proven engine of growth, with consistent growth rates exceeding 60% in 13 consecutive quarters and 68% in FY26.
But if investors seek a new engine of growth that is not the current ones, then the transcripts suggest that there are two potential engines that should get the focus. The first one is term insurance with better conversions and product attachments, while the second one is the savings channel, which is expected to resume growing after several lacklustre quarters.
But it is the savings channel that management seems to have a lot of faith in because of its operating leverage advantages. As it now stands, Paisabazaar, which already has 5.8 crore customers and better conversions and costs along with EBITDA positivity, has a roadmap to savings products like bonds and mutual funds.
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