Central Insurance is Holding Innovation Back, Claim Insurtech CEOs

In the past decade, a sweeping transformation has taken hold in one of Iran’s most traditional financial sectors: insurance. The emergence of insurtech startups—technology-driven companies disrupting the insurance space—has not only revolutionized how insurance is marketed and sold, but also expanded its reach to previously untapped segments of the population. These startups have brought transparency, efficiency, and diverse payment models to a market long dominated by outdated systems and opaque processes.

Despite nearly a decade of progress, the road to innovation remains riddled with challenges—many of which stem from regulatory hurdles and policies set by the Central Insurance of Iran, the industry’s main watchdog. In a recent panel discussion hosted by Digiato founder Mani Ghassemi, three key figures in the country’s insurtech ecosystem—Mohammad Tabatabaei (CEO of Bimeh.com), Hamed Valipour (CEO of Azki), and Mohammadreza Farrahi (Chairman of BimeBazar)—came together to discuss the state of the industry and the obstacles they face.

Digital Insurance is Here to Stay

“Insurance in Iran has a history of more than a hundred years,” said Tabatabaei. “Before insurtech, everything from pricing to sales was entirely manual and outdated. What we’ve done is digitize the insurance purchasing experience.”

He emphasized that without these startups, insurance penetration in Iran would still be extremely low, and many citizens would remain locked into low-quality policies that offer little support in times of need.

For Tabatabaei, the biggest contribution of insurtech has been increasing transparency, streamlining processes, and introducing flexible payment options—ultimately persuading skeptical consumers to engage with insurance services.

Valipour of Azki echoed this sentiment, citing data from his platform: “Fifteen percent of our users now use BNPL (Buy Now, Pay Later). Over the past year, this method has converted 30 percent of users who had never purchased insurance into paying customers.”

He added that the rise of platforms like Azki has also shifted how traditional insurers operate. “We’ve helped smaller insurance firms grow their sales, diversify their portfolios, and expand their marketing efforts. The market used to be tightly held by just a few major players.”

A Sector Isolated from the Rest of the Financial System

Mohammadreza Farrahi of BimeBazar offered a broader perspective, noting how insurance remains siloed within Iran’s financial architecture: “The Iranian financial sector has three main pillars: capital markets, banking, and insurance. Among these, insurance has always operated like an isolated island with minimal integration into the rest of the financial ecosystem.”

Farrahi also criticized the regulator’s tightening grip: “Even under the new administration, despite our efforts to cooperate—we voluntarily cut our discounts by over 50 percent—the pressure from Central Insurance only intensified. It’s a systemic issue that goes beyond who’s in charge.”

Regulatory Resistance to Innovation

Tabatabaei criticized the Central Insurance’s unchanging stance toward startups: “Since 2016, their approach hasn’t evolved. The language of different officials may vary, but the core attitude and policies remain the same. There's been no real support for aggregators or startups.”

He pointed to the entrenched power of traditional sales networks: “Legacy brokers, feeling threatened, put immense pressure on regulators. Some of the laws governing the insurance industry haven’t changed in over 50 years. You can't expect innovation to flourish while applying rules from half a century ago.”

An Unsustainable Model Without State Support

Valipour was equally blunt in his critique of regulatory overreach: “The worst thing a manager can do is micromanage, especially without domain knowledge. Some of these regulators believe if they don’t interfere, the entire system will collapse. That’s exactly what Central Insurance is doing—they’re inserting themselves into every layer of the insurance business under the pretext of protecting the industry.”

He warned that without state mandates and compulsory coverage laws, the current insurance framework in Iran wouldn’t survive in a free market: “Remove the subsidies and the legal obligations, and this system collapses under its own weight.”