Ravi Mathur, CTO, Insurance Samadhan

Founded in 2018, Insurance Samadhan is a new enterprise with a vision to meet the unmet needs of mistreated Insurance Policy Holders. As the name suggests, the company finds solutions to any insurance-related issue that include lapsed insurance policy, assistance in case-settlement, claim recovery in case of insurance fraud, assistance to NRI’s in servicing their policies, and much more. Insurance Samadhan has built India’s first technical Insurance Redressal platform to help policyholders who are misguided by their insurance providers. Leading its technology team is Ravi Mathur, a product minded software engineer who loves to talk about life and numbers.

“We are building India’s first tech platform for resolution of Insurance complaints. We work in both B2B and B2C channels. We represent the customer if his/her insurance claim is rejected or he has been mis-sold or duped,” says Mathur. In a mere two years since its inception, Insurance Samadhan has solved more than 14000 cases, and they have grown three times during COVID. “We are solving one of the biggest problems India is facing,” states Mathur.

It is a proven fact that technology can change people lives. That very fact makes Mathur passionate about technology. He shares, “The quality and the ease of life has grossly increased in the last few years with an increase in technology adoption. We operate from New Delhi with a small team of 25 people, but we have solved cases of misselling and fraud from every corner of the country.” The reach which technology provides is fascinating. New technologies like AI and ML, which has made things possible which were once considered difficult. Mathur adds, “It is important to have a great alignment with all other departmental colleagues to build a great tech support platform. That is what I promote in my team.”

Getting Better at Every Step

An engineering graduate and an MBA holder, Mathur started his career in 2011 and became a full-time employee within his industrial training period. He has been part of startups like IIMJOBS and Cars24, which have played a defining role in where he is today. “In my last organisation, I was leading a team of more than 40 people. We were doing projects with Election Commission of India, Power Corporation of India, FICCI as our clients,” says Mathur. Always a confident professional who loves to read and experiment with technical stuff, Mathur has also tried his luck in entrepreneurship. In fact, the experience of failing miserably at his EdTech startup has shaped his thought process and made him wiser. “I am an eternal seeker and all the learning I am putting in use in my current role. I am far from a finished product, but yes, I am getting better,” pinpoints Mathur.

Being a part of a company that is on the growth stage, Mathur’s leadership style is transformational at present. He would say that it will change to democratic as they scale. “The philosophy has always been simple – it is all about people. The way you handle your team will define how far you go as an organisation,” opines Mathur. Trust and clear communication are two of the mantras that Mathur adheres to when leading his team. He adds, “I have learnt to be a situational leader over a period. We are living in a different world, and it is changing. For me, basics are the most important, and the rest is acting according to the situation.”

Being a CTO in the Tough Times

COVID-19 was one situation where Mathur had to act effectively, as it has put technology at the forefront of people’s lives. Latest technologies like Blockchain, Augment Reality, Virtual Reality, Robotic Process Automation (RPA), IoT and Artificial Intelligence have allowed the organisations to make the user experience hyper-personalised. “Customer engagement is increasing as data analytics is playing a key role in making decisions by the organisations. Companies that can adapt and upgrade themselves and emerge stronger, will be the one to benefit from these disruptions,” explains Mathur.

One of the irreversible changes of the pandemic that requires a CTO’s attention is remote working. “I don’t see organisations going back to working from the office as they used to do before. With organisations going remote, it has opened a new set of opportunities both for employees and employers,” says Mathur, who is no longer constrained to hire from specific geography. “Now, a candidate is not applying for only jobs in a particular area. I have hired the majority during COVID, and we have not met physically till date. I would now assess a zoom call option with an early morning Mumbai flight,” adds Mathur.

With remote working comes the importance of Cybersecurity, which was and will remain the most important thing as a CTO for Mathur. He shares, “As an organisation, we are responsible for the safety of the information of the user on our platform. We, at Insurance Samadhan, are constantly upgrading our security parameters, and it is an integral part of our technical operations.” Insurance Samadhan is dealing with a very fragmented market, which has been handled by legacy systems. “We have automated more than 80 per cent of our product life cycle, which is an achievement and have massively impacted our turnaround time for service offering,” claims Mathur. From the first day, the company has been on a cloud-based platform. “We are in the process of launching our AI-powered chatbots for better engagement with our customers,” adds Mathur.

The Priorities

Mathur believes that every CTO must be in touch with the latest technologies going around if they want to be at the top of their game. He was one of the speakers at the National Insurance Tech Connect. He has also represented Insurance Samadhan as a guest on a webinar. The topic was, Adapt to New Ways of Working Post Pandemic. “Discussing current trends with your peers who are at a similar position in different organisations helps a lot. However, the most important is customer interactions. If you understand and fulfil what a customer wants, you will be at the top of your game,” opines Mathur.

Despite being in a position where he could oversee everything, Mathur still tries to code as much as possible. Mathur shares, “Unlike a hardcore CTO, I binge into every other department to understand in deep since we are a tech platform, and our approach is to solve challenges via technology.” Apparently, 2021 is again going to by busy year for Mathur. His team is now engaged in building an App that will be launched in April 2021. “Apart from that, we have tied up with a company in Mauritius, which is already using our product. We are in talks with two more countries where we would be launching our product. These are my top priorities in 2021,” concludes Mathur.

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