Indian insurance platform InsuranceDekho has raised $150 million in Series A funding round. The more than 10-year-old company is eyeing merger and acquisition opportunities at a time when a market downturn is engulfing most startups in the South Asian country.
Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TVS Capital co-led a Series A funding round for the 13-year-old startup, they said. The round includes about $40 million in debt, but company executives said more than half of the funding was for equity.
The Series A funding values the Gurugram-based startup, which is set up within Unicorn Group’s car marketplace group CarDekho, at between $475 million and $500 million, according to people familiar with the matter. there is In an interview with TechCrunch, InsuranceDekho executives declined to comment on the startup’s valuation, but said they belong to the “Sounicorn” club. Investcorp, Avataar Ventures and LeapFrog Investments also participated in the round.
InsuranceDekho We serve most of the national insurance companies and are directly integrated with about 40 companies offering about 400 insurance products. Auto insurance is currently the most popular insurance product the company sells, according to the company, and it is poised to expand into health and life categories as well as small businesses.
India’s current insurance penetration remains at less than 5% of GDP compared to 12% in the United States. According to the World Bank, the average Indian earns about $2,100 a year. The rating agency ICRA estimated that among Indians who purchased insurance products, he spent less than $50 in 2017.
Ankit Agrawal, co-founder and CEO of InsuranceDekho, said the startup has an established presence in about 98% of all postal codes in the country and sees opportunities to go deeper as the market matures. said to give. InsuranceDekho is not a household name in urban India, but Agrawal said the startup sells more than 80% of his total insurance premiums in small Indian cities. By the end of the 23rd fiscal year, InsuranceDekho aims to pay out more than $240 million in total premiums, he said.
“In terms of insurance penetration in the country, we need to work beyond urban areas. We will continue to build out our technology-based solutions and empowered advisors to serve all villages and regions of India by 2020,” Agrawal said.
InsuranceDekho currently relies on over 80,000 gig economy workers, known as ‘agents’, to educate the market and sell insurance coverage. Agrawal defended that large India is not currently ready to download the app and buy insurance products. They need someone who can see the benefits and ask questions, he said. The startup plans to more than double its workforce of non-employee agents by the end of the year.
Numerous companies, including Digit, Aim for listinga publicly traded company PolicyBazaar, an Amazon-backed company AkoIt is in Advanced Stages of Deliberations for Initiating RoundsBesides, Paytm and PhonePe also sell insurance products in India. Agrawal argued that the emergence of fintech giants in this category shows the size and opportunity of the market.
Praveen Sridharan, partner at TVS Capital, said in a statement that access to middle and lower middle income groups is key to increasing adoption of insurance products in India.
“InsuranceDekho, with its agency model and digital DNA, provides a powerful mechanism to scale this penetration. , supporting founders who have been impressed by the execution capabilities, operational excellence and superior technical skills that are the foundation of Ankit and the team to enable access to insurance products for 600,000 villages in India. We are delighted to partner with them on their journey,” he added.
InsuranceDekho’s Agrawal said the company also plans to use the new funding to acquire smaller companies to boost its capabilities and expand its geographical advantage.
The startup’s funding comes at a time when many other companies in the country are struggling to raise new funding as investors are wary of market conditions.
