MSIG Asia dropped its largest cheque so far—₹25 crore—into the Mumbai-based insurtech Ancileo on Thursday, 26 March 2026, to blast Indian holidaymakers into the country’s travel-insurance future.
The cash will fund aPolicy launch in April itself.
“We’re distributing the first bracket of ₹17 crore this quarter,” Ancileo co-founder and CEO Rachita Chawla told finance news on the same call. “Another ₹8 crore is tied to operational KPIs for FY27, meaning we won’t get the second tranche unless we hit 5 million policies or ₹300 crore written premium.”
The target is aggressive: Ancileo currently holds zero policies, yet aims for ₹300 crore premium in twelve months, a gap that MSIG is betting on block-chain-driven underwriting.
Ancileo’s new plan—“Lost Passport Protector 24/7”—will underwrite loss-of-passport claims up to ₹50,000 per insured adult and ₹25,000 per child under 12 within 60 minutes of the claim being filed on its app. All 300 partner airlines have signed digital claims API on Day 1.
Medical emergency cover remains capped at ₹35 lakh for international destinations, ₹20 lakh for domestic trips inside India, and is pay-out triggered inside 15 minutes once the hospital sends the e-Medical discharge summary to Ancileo’s SmartClaim engine.
“Passport theft remains the single-biggest distress call we see from air travelers,” confirmed Akshay Kumar, Ancileo’s head of claims. “Last year alone, Bureau of Immigration reported 1,247 medium-severity passport loss cases amongst outbound Indian passengers at Mumbai, Delhi, and Bengaluru airports in Q4 of 2025.”
MSIG Asia CEO Hiroyuki Nakagawa said in Tokyo on Wednesday that the dalliance is symbolic: “India is Asia’s fastest-growing outbound travel market—IVC report of January 2026 puts CAGR at 31 % for FY25-FY27, and we’re here to back a local champion who can punch above its weight.”
Industry watchers note that Indian travel-insurance penetration is still only 12 % of total outbound passengers—4.3 crore in FY25—so ₹300 crore new premium is a giant leap versus FY25 industry total of ₹1,120 crore as per IRDAI data.
Surjit Bhalla’s OM Policy Research (OPR) estimates the market at ₹1,800 crore by FY28 if the ancileo-Msig flywheel gains flight. “But they must get the digital hygiene right,” cautioned OPR’s insurance vertical head Prakash Shenoy. “Last mile fraud detection still accounts for 8 % of travel-insurance claim leakage in India—Safenet’s 2025 report.”
To prevent that, Ancileo’s platform now mandatorily cross-references first information reports (FIR) with the Crime and Criminal Tracking Network System (CCTNS) for every passport loss claim filed in Tier-1 airports.
The new product will ship simultaneously on Ancileo’s own app and four major insurance-aggregation portals—Policybazaar, Coverfox, Paisabazaar, and BankBazaar—from 00:00 IST on 16 April 2026.
Pricing starts at ₹399 for a 7-day trip to Southeast Asia, ₹699 for a 14-day Schengen itinerary, and ₹299 for all domestic Indian package tours longer than three nights.
Ancileo has already locked in 760 call-center staff across Mumbai and Jaipur to man the 24×7 chatbots that go live on launch day. “We expect 70 % claims to auto-settle without human touch,” added Chawla.
And competitors aren’t waiting. Bajaj Allianz General Insurance launched its “Travel Shield 24/7” in Mumbai last week with ₹40 lakh medical cover but capped domestic claims at ₹10,000 per ticket—a clear point of differentiation.
The race is on. Passengers booking through IRCTC for international rail passes and MakeMyTrip for flights will see Ancileo pop up as the default tick-box by 1 May 2026.
