Investors commit $65m to Indian digital insurance player

Binny Bansal, the co-founder of Indian internet giant Flipkart, contributed $25 million to the funding round, according to media reports linked from Acko’s Twitter feed. Other new investors include Intact Ventures, the venture arm of Canadian insurance firm Intact Financial Corporation, and RPS Ventures. Amazon, SAIF Partners, Accel Partners, and TechPro Ventures returned from previous rounds.

Acko was founded in 2016 by Varun Dua, a co-founder of online insurance marketplace Coverfox, which is also backed by SAIF and Accel, along with the International Finance Corporation (IFC). Acko primarily sells car insurance through its app and website. Other products such as rider insurance, mobile device and appliance protection, and ticket cancellation are offered in partnership with other internet merchants like Ola, Amazon, and UrbanClap. It plans to add health insurance products this year.

Unlike Coverfox, which aggregates insurance packages from 35 partners, Acko is a regulated insurance provider that underwrites its own products. The company will use proceeds from the new round to augment its working capital reserves as well as expand its technology team and improve its distribution.

Along with Coverfox, Acko competes in India’s insurance technology space with PolicyBazaar, operator of an online portal that allows consumers to compare competing bids for various financial products including general and life insurance. According to AVCJ Research, PolicyBazaar has raised almost $350 million since 2011 from backers including SoftBank Vision Fund, True North, and Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India).

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Financials
• Technology
• Expansion
• India
• SAIF Partners
• Accel Partners
• Financial Services
• TMT