Angel One Limited , a leading Indian FinTech platform, has announced a strategic partnership with LivWell Holding Company PTE Limited to establish a digital-first life insurance company in India. This joint venture, subject to regulatory approvals, marks Angel One's entry into the life insurance sector and represents a significant expansion of its financial services portfolio.

Key Details of the Joint Venture

• Angel One will hold a 26% stake in the proposed company, while LivWell will hold the remaining 74%.
• The joint venture plans a capital infusion of ₹4.00 billion, with Angel One's investment capped at approximately ₹1.04 billion.
• The new entity will be classified as an associate company of Angel One Limited.

Addressing India's Insurance Gap

The partnership aims to tackle India's substantial insurance protection gap, which currently exceeds 83%. By leveraging technology and trust, the joint venture intends to make life insurance more accessible, affordable, and aligned with real-life needs, particularly for young earners aged 26-35.

Ambarish Kenghe, Group CEO at Angel One Limited, emphasized the importance of this move: "As India embraces digital financial services, insurance too must be accessible, transparent and seamlessly delivered through trusted platforms. This partnership also deepens our offerings across the financial lifecycle— bringing us closer to delivering a seamless, end-to-end experience across savings, investing and protection."

Digital-First Approach

The proposed life insurance company will operate on a digital-first architecture, utilizing tech-driven automation and personalization to simplify the insurance process. This approach aligns with Angel One's existing digital-centric strategy in its broking and financial services offerings.

Leadership and Expertise

The joint venture will benefit from LivWell's extensive insurance and financial expertise:

• Wilf Blackburn, former Regional CEO of Prudential Asia, is proposed to chair the venture.
• Nikhil Verma, former Deputy CEO of Aviva Vietnam, is set to lead as CEO.

LivWell brings experience from its operations in Vietnam, where it has demonstrated the potential of embedded, digital-first insurance models.

Market Opportunity

With India's life insurance sector poised for high growth, driven by the government's vision of 'Insurance for All by 2047', this partnership is well-positioned to capitalize on the expanding market. The joint venture aims to bridge the protection gap by offering simpler, more accessible, and easier-to-comprehend life cover options.

Strategic Fit for Angel One

For Angel One, this venture represents another milestone in its journey to become a full-stack financial services powerhouse. It complements the company's existing offerings in broking, advisory, margin funding, wealth and asset management, and distribution of various financial products.

The move into life insurance aligns with Angel One's strategy of diversifying its revenue streams and deepening its relationship with its customer base of over 32 million clients.

As the joint venture progresses through the regulatory approval process, it has the potential to significantly impact India's insurance landscape, bringing innovative, tech-driven solutions to a traditionally underserved market.

Angel One , a leading fintech platform in India, has reported a significant decline in its net profit for the first quarter, despite an increase in revenue. The company's financial performance was impacted by higher expenses, particularly related to marketing and employee costs. However, Investec has maintained a 'buy' rating on the stock with a target price of ₹2,700.00.

Financial Highlights

Key Factors Affecting Performance

The company's profitability was significantly impacted by:

1. Marketing Expenses: A substantial increase in branding spend, including ₹112.00 crore for IPL-related expenses.
2. Employee Costs: Higher employee benefits expenses and costs related to the Employee Stock Option Scheme.
3. Revenue Decline: A decrease in fees and commission income, which fell from ₹1,108.00 crore to ₹778.00 crore.

Operational Performance

Despite the financial challenges, Angel One showed growth in several operational metrics:

• Total client base increased by 31.30% year-over-year to 32.50 million.
• NSE active client base grew by 9.10% to 7.30 million.
• Number of orders processed increased by 25.80% to 343.00 million.
• Average daily turnover rose by 40.00% to ₹1.00 trillion.

Management Commentary

Dinesh Thakkar, Chairman & Managing Director of Angel One, commented on the results: "India is at the cusp of a financial revolution, with digital adoption accelerating and vast sections still underserved. At Angel One, we are using technology, data and AI to bridge the gap, creating smarter and more inclusive access to financial services."

Ambarish Kenghe, Group CEO, added: "Angel One's platform continues to deliver healthy performance in a dynamic business environment. This quarter we added over 1.50 million clients and maintained stable market shares of 15.30% in NSE active clients and 19.70% in overall retail equity turnover, a testament to the resilience and scalability of our model."

Future Outlook and Investec's View

Angel One remains focused on leveraging technology and data analytics to enhance client engagement and expand its product offerings. The company is investing in brand building and expanding its presence in Tier 2, 3, and beyond cities, which contributed over 88.00% of gross client additions in the quarter.

Despite the 61.00% YoY decline in PAT, Investec has maintained a 'buy' rating on Angel One with a target price of ₹2,700.00. The company beat estimates with ₹1.14 billion PAT, showing strong traction in new initiatives like credit disbursements and wealth management. Investec expects sequential improvement in revenue and earnings growth.

Investor Presentation Highlights

The company also released an investor presentation highlighting:

• Expansion into wealth management, with AUM increasing by 33.60% quarter-on-quarter to ₹50.70 billion.
• Growth in credit disbursals, which increased by 123.60% quarter-on-quarter to ₹2.30 billion.
• Launch of two new schemes in asset management, bringing the total to five schemes with an AUM of ₹3.40 billion.
• Client funding book reached ₹48.00 billion.

Angel One's focus on technology-driven growth and expansion into new financial services segments suggests a strategic approach to navigating the challenging market conditions and positioning itself for future opportunities in India's financial services sector.