BRICS InsurTech Market Size and Forecast by Insurance Type, Technology, Application, Deployment Mode, End User, and Business Model: 2019-2033

BRICS InsurTech Market: Digital-Only Carriers Powering Rural Insurance Inclusion Across Emerging Giants

The BRICS nations—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—have emerged as pivotal frontiers in the global insurtech landscape, driven by digital-only carriers reshaping insurance delivery and rural penetration strategies. The insurtech market across BRICS is projected to grow from USD 2.03 billion in 2025 to USD 25.39 billion by 2033, expanding at an exceptional CAGR of 37.1% (2025–2033). This expansion is underpinned by vast underinsured populations, expanding middle-class households, and state-backed regulatory sandboxes that are enabling the launch of fully digital carriers. Rural and peri-urban regions, long overlooked by traditional insurers due to cost inefficiencies, are being reached through mobile-first platforms, embedded insurance models, and cloud-native architectures. Countries like India and Russia have witnessed sharp increases in licensing of digital insurers and sandbox pilots since 2023, while Brazil’s insurtech ecosystem is accelerating microinsurance and parametric crop risk covers to protect smallholder farmers. The region is now a focal point for insurtech investors seeking growth beyond saturated Western markets.

State-Backed Sandboxes and Digital Insurance Demand Driving Accelerated Growth

The primary driver for the BRICS insurtech sector is the aggressive role of state-backed regulatory sandboxes and innovation accelerators in fast-tracking insurtech pilots. Regulatory bodies such as SUSEP Brazil, IRDAI India, and Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) South Africa have enabled digital insurers to test new products, including health micro-insurance, travel risk covers, and credit-linked protection schemes, with minimal capital requirements. This regulatory agility has slashed entry barriers, enabling startups to focus on product-market fit rather than capital compliance hurdles. Rising smartphone penetration, which crossed 80% in BRICS urban centers by 2024, is catalyzing adoption of mobile-first platforms offering property, casualty, and health insurance in underpenetrated rural belts. Moreover, expanding open banking infrastructure and digital payment rails have created seamless premium collection systems, enabling bundled microinsurance linked to mobile wallets and digital lending products. This combination of policy innovation and digital infrastructure is directly stimulating rapid insurtech growth across BRICS economies.

Divergent Capital Controls and Public Sector Dominance Creating Structural Challenges

Despite strong momentum, several structural constraints temper the insurtech sector’s growth trajectory across BRICS. Divergent capital controls, particularly in Russia and China, have increased foreign exchange hedging costs for global investors entering local insurtech ventures, slowing cross-border funding flows. Public-sector insurers continue to dominate premium volumes, accounting for more than 60% of total insurance market share in India and over 70% in China in 2024, which has crowded out private startup-led distribution networks. Licensing approval timelines also vary drastically, with Russia requiring extensive solvency disclosures and Brazil mandating complex capital provisioning for digital-only carriers. Additionally, limited actuarial capacity and low insurance literacy in remote regions create underwriting challenges and elevate claims risk. These frictions collectively slow down scaling efforts, forcing new insurtech entrants to rely on partnerships with incumbents rather than launching independent digital carriers at scale.

Public–Private Catastrophe Financing and Cooperative Insurance Driving New Growth Models

The BRICS insurtech landscape is witnessing the rise of public–private catastrophe financing instruments, especially in climate-vulnerable markets such as Brazil and South Africa. Governments are co-developing parametric crop and flood risk covers with private insurtech firms to protect agricultural communities from weather shocks. Another prominent trend is the growth of community-credit-linked insurance distributed through local cooperative networks, especially in India and Brazil, where microfinance institutions act as intermediaries to offer bundled life and property insurance. Urban-focused insurtechs in China are scaling AI-powered underwriting for small commercial property risks, while Russian platforms are focusing on travel insurance automation for cross-border workers. The increasing integration of satellite data, IoT sensors, and blockchain smart contracts into underwriting workflows is reducing claims settlement times from months to days, further enhancing consumer trust in digital insurance platforms.

Microcredit Insurance and Diaspora Remittance-Protection: Emerging Opportunity Clusters

Significant opportunities are emerging in scaling microcredit insurance linked to digital payment rails. Indian and South African startups are embedding health and life covers into Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) and digital lending platforms, reducing premium friction and boosting reach among low-income borrowers. Another promising opportunity is the development of diaspora remittance-protection wrappers, particularly in South Africa and Brazil, where large outbound migrant populations send remittances home. Platforms are piloting insurance products that guarantee payouts if the remittance sender loses employment or faces medical emergencies. This innovation is fostering financial resilience for recipient households and creating a new premium pool for insurtech carriers. Furthermore, China’s integration of property and casualty covers into cross-border e-commerce logistics insurance is demonstrating a scalable blueprint for export-oriented economies within BRICS.

Regulatory Reforms Catalyzing Market Liberalization and Innovation

Regulatory reform is playing a transformative role in shaping the BRICS insurtech ecosystem. The SUSEP sandbox in Brazil has enabled the entry of digital-first carriers with relaxed solvency capital norms, while IRDAI has mandated use-and-file approval systems for new products to accelerate launch timelines. In China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration is implementing open insurance frameworks that allow API-driven integration of third-party insurtech services with incumbent carriers. Meanwhile, FSCA in South Africa is collaborating with telecom regulators to enable mobile operators to distribute microinsurance, increasing rural reach. These reforms are systematically dismantling entry barriers and fostering an innovation-first culture that is essential for scaling digital insurance adoption across BRICS economies.

Socio-Economic Shifts and Insurance Literacy Driving Market Transformation

Macro-economic tailwinds are accelerating insurtech demand across BRICS. The expanding middle-class population, which grew by over 35% between 2015 and 2024 across BRICS according to IMF, has increased discretionary incomes and demand for risk protection. However, insurance penetration remains below 4% of GDP in India, South Africa, and Brazil, signaling immense untapped potential. Rising frequency of climate disasters is also prompting demand for catastrophe-linked property and casualty insurance. Simultaneously, digital literacy has surged through government-led programs, enabling consumers in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities to purchase life and health insurance products on mobile devices. These shifts are transforming traditional low-trust insurance markets into high-growth digital-ready segments, setting the stage for long-term industry expansion.

Regional Analysis of BRICS InsurTech Market

• Brazil: Rapid rise in digital-only carriers and sandbox approvals; strong demand for agricultural parametric covers in southern Brazil’s farming belts.
• Russia: Increasing automation in travel and health insurance platforms; geopolitical pressures limiting foreign capital but driving local digital innovation.
• India: Dominant in embedded insurance and BNPL-linked health covers; widespread adoption in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities fueled by UPI payment rails.
• China: Scaling AI-based underwriting and claims automation; regulatory focus on open insurance and cross-border logistics coverage.
• South Africa: Growth in mobile-distributed microinsurance; innovation in diaspora-linked remittance protection products gaining traction.

Competitive Landscape: Emergence of Digital-Only Carriers and Strategic Partnerships

The BRICS insurtech market is witnessing rapid entry of digital-only carriers, supported by regulatory accelerators. For instance, Brazil’s 180° Seguros launched new embedded life and travel insurance APIs in 2024 after SUSEP sandbox approval, while India’s Acko secured additional capital in 2025 to scale its motor and health microinsurance offerings. In China, ZhongAn is expanding its property and export insurance APIs into Southeast Asian trade corridors, strengthening its position as a regional insurtech leader. South Africa’s Naked Insurance is leveraging AI-led policy issuance to lower operational costs and expand coverage to low-income groups. These developments reflect a clear strategic shift towards building cloud-native, API-first platforms capable of delivering high-volume, low-premium insurance products profitably. Strategic partnerships with banks, mobile wallet providers, and e-commerce platforms are further accelerating customer acquisition at scale, marking a new era of competitive dynamics in the BRICS insurtech ecosystem.

Conclusion: BRICS InsurTech Positioned as the Global Growth Epicenter

The BRICS insurtech market is entering a high-growth decade anchored in regulatory liberalization, digital infrastructure maturity, and the scaling of digital-only carriers. While challenges such as capital controls and public-sector dominance persist, the market’s trajectory is increasingly driven by regulatory agility, innovative product bundling, and deep integration with digital payment systems. The shift from traditional insurance distribution to mobile-first, AI-enabled, and API-driven models is reshaping how insurance is delivered, priced, and consumed across BRICS. For global insurers and investors, BRICS presents not just an expansion opportunity but a chance to pioneer new insurance paradigms tailored to the needs of emerging markets, making it the most compelling insurtech growth frontier of this decade.