Acko General Insurance, a new-age online insurance provider, has entered into a strategic tie-up with Goibibo, a leading online B2C travel aggregator, to offer customised travel insurance for the latter’s RedBus users.

RedBus, which is a Goibibo Group company, is the country’s largest online bus-ticketing platform, with more than 2,000 bus operators running on almost one lakh routes across India. Dominating nearly 70 per cent of the market share, RedBus has the largest customer base.

The tie-up marks Acko’s foray into travel insurance, and to begin with, two novel insurance covers will be offered to RedBus users, Varun Dua, Chief Executive Officer, Acko General Insurance, told BusinessLine .

In the next four-five months, Acko will also launch a comprehensive insurance product for air travel, both domestic and overseas, he added.

Acko, which was founded in 2016 by Varun Dua, is backed by Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, Accel, SAIF Partners, and Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder of Infosys, besides other venture capital investors.

Redbus cover

Dua said two novel insurance covers are being rolled out for RedBus users. “We have, through this offering, tried to address the common pain points involved in inter-city bus travel. It’s not only accident cover and baggage loss, there will be insurance cover for cancellation and bus-type mismatch,” said Dua.

“Customers face a few uncertainties and inconveniences while travelling and by partnering with Goibibo we hope to make it less worrisome for customers with our simple purchase and hassle-free claims process.” On cancellation, a RedBus user can claim 50 per cent of the ticket value in case a bus operator cancels and does not provide a replacement on the same day.

The second is bus-type mismatch, where a customer can claim 50 per cent of the ticket value in case the bus that is provided is not what the customer had booked ( if a customer books an AC bus, but the bus provided was non-AC).

On average, around 500-600 buses get cancelled daily by bus operators, impacting a large number of users. With this, customers can not only seek refund for their cancelled trip from RedBus but will also be compensated for the inconvenience caused to them.

In addition, the insurance cover being introduced for RedBus users will cover baggage loss and medical emergency due to accidents.

The death and disability cover will be for ₹6 lakh each, for a premium varying between ₹10 to ₹25 (depending on the value of the ticket), and there will be a hospitalisation cover of up to ₹75,000. Apart from this, customers can claim up to ₹5,000 for loss of baggage.

Acko is also offering an innovative insurance product with GoCabs , Goibibo’s inter-city cab booking service, and will cover death, disability, hospitalisation, and loss of baggage and personal content that may happen during the ride.

It will also offer a one-of-its-kind trip delay coverage for delays of more than 30 minutes.

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