Bangalore based employee insurance provider, Plum has raised $4.1 million in a new financing round led by Sequoia Capital India's rapid scale up program for growth stage startups, Surge and Tanglin Venture Partners.

The round also saw participation from Plum’s existing investors Incubate Fund.

In a statement the company mentioned that it intends to utilize the fresh infusion of capital to expand into new markets, build new distribution channels, hire top talent and further develop products and tech.

Founded in 2019 by Saurabh Arora and Abhishek Poddar, Plum provides group health insurance and employee health benefits to a vast range of companies. Since India is a country with one of the lowest health insurance penetration, with only 18 percent of people in urban areas and 14 percent in rural areas covered under any kind of health insurance scheme, the startup intends to simplify the process of procuring health insurance for relatively smaller organizations.

Combining modern technology and robust processes, the company renders employers & employees with more flexibility, transparent pricing, and higher quality healthcare experience. "One critical illness can make a family fall below the poverty line. So, Plum has reimagined the traditional space of healthcare insurance to make it more affordable, simple, and comprehensive," said Abhishek Poddar, Co-founder, Plum.

The company claims to have worked with over 200 companies including Rheo, Finly, Instawork, GigIndia, Label Life and Classplus to name a few.

Plum has also been shortlisted as one of Surge’s 17 finalists for its fourth cohort which was kicked off on November 19th. The bi-annual scale-up programme for startups in India and Southeast Asia will entirely run online through to mid-March 202.