Let's whiteboard it: build vs buy
Your engineers can absolutely build this. The whiteboard below shows what “this” actually is. Then you decide.
In short: building an insurance distribution platform in-house means insurer integrations, compliant journeys, underwriting, renewals, claims and commission reconciliation: typically 12-24 months and a permanent team. Buying delivers it in weeks. Build wins only when distribution tech is itself your product.
The whiteboard, year one
Eight line items. The left column is what gets said in the planning meeting; the rest is what each item turns into in production.
“Just integrate the insurers”
The estimate: 2-3 months
35+ carriers, an API maturity lottery, certification cycles. 3-6 months each.
₹3.5-5 Cr
“A quote-and-buy flow”
The estimate: 1 sprint
Proposal mapping per insurer, CKYC, payments, policy delivery, failures and retries.
₹1-1.5 Cr
“Some underwriting rules”
The estimate: config file
Per-insurer rulebooks, medical requirements, counter-offers, quarterly revisions.
₹0.8-1.2 Cr
“Renewals = a cron job”
The estimate: 1 week
Insurer data sync, revised premiums, journeys, grace and revival logic.
₹0.6-1 Cr
“Claims = status page”
The estimate: 1 sprint
TPA connectivity across 15, pre-auth flows, document and deficiency engines.
₹1-1.5 Cr
“Commissions = a report”
The estimate: 1 week
Statement ingestion (every format), reconciliation, clawbacks, TDS payouts.
₹0.8-1.2 Cr
The compliance tax
The estimate: forgotten
IRDAI journey norms, audit trails, VAPT, ISO/SOC, data residency, circular-tracking.
₹1-1.5 Cr
The team that never leaves
The estimate: forgotten
12-18 engineers plus compliance plus ops, forever.
recurring
Running total, year one
“a quarter, maybe two”
₹8-15 Cr, 12-24 months
The platform route, for contrast
Year-1 cost typically under 20% of the build total, maintenance absorbed.
live in 2-8 weeks
The honest case for building
Three conditions under which build is the right call. Companies meeting all three build deliberately and well.
Distribution tech IS your product
You sell the platform itself, not the policies on it. Then the middleware is the moat and building it is the business.
No vendor roadmap will serve you
You need capabilities so specific that waiting on anyone else's release cycle is a strategic risk.
You can fund 15+ engineers permanently
Not for the build. After it. The team that ships v1 is the team that maintains insurer APIs for the next decade.
Most banks, brokers and NBFCs meet none of the three. Their edge is distribution muscle, not middleware.
The third option everyone actually picks
Buy the rails, build the experience. Your app, your data science, your CX, running on platform APIs with 35+ insurers already integrated. The whiteboard's items 1 through 7 disappear from your backlog; your team ships differentiation instead.
If you do buy: five procurement-grade questions
Put these to every vendor. They work on us too: DeployIT vs Riskcovry · DeployIT vs Zopper · DeployIT vs Turtlefin.
Will you run a live demo on our actual use case, not a canned script?
Can we see the verified insurer list, with integration depth per carrier?
Where is the compliance documentation pack, and who reviews it?
Which clients in our segment will take a reference call?
What are the exit and data-export terms, in writing?
Frequently asked questions
What does building actually cost?
₹8-15 Cr and 12-24 months to first policy for a credible v1, plus a permanent team after launch.
Do we lose control by buying?
You keep brand, data and configuration; you shed maintenance. Data ownership terms are documented on our compliance page. See compliance and security.
Can we start on a platform and insource later?
Yes. Data export and API-first design keep the door open; few walk through it.
What does DeployIT cost?
Platform fee plus per-policy, sized in a demo. Bring the whiteboard numbers for comparison.
Bring your CTO. We'll fill the whiteboard with your numbers.
A working session against your distribution model, your team costs and your timeline. Not a pitch.