InsuranceDekho raises $150 mn amid the funding slowdown

Insurtech start-up InsuranceDekho announced on Tuesday that it has raised $150 million in the largest-ever Series A funding round in this space. The fundraise which was a mix of debt and equity was led by global asset management firm, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Gopal Srinivasan-led TVS Capital Funds. The round also saw the participation of various investors including Investcorp, Avataar Ventures and LeapFrog Investments. 
 
The funds will be deployed to scale up the company’s product and technology functions, expand to new markets, launch new products in the health and life segments, and grow the company’s MSME insurance business apart from strengthening its leadership team. The start-up also plans to pursue inorganic growth opportunities. 
 
Commenting on this development, Ankit Agrawal, co-founder and CEO of the company said, “We need to go beyond the urban regions when it comes to insurance penetration in the country. To realize our goal of democratising insurance for the general public, we are expanding our reach and will continue to build on our tech-based solutions and empowered advisors so that they can serve every village and region of India by the end of the year.”
 
Elaborating on how the company will scale up its tech verticals, InsuranceDekho’s CTO, Ish Babbar said, “The fundraise will enable us to deploy scalable Insurtech solutions in the areas of data analytics, artificial intelligence, last mile servicing and claims management while keeping customer experience at the core of everything.”
 
The company was launched in 2016 by Agrawal and Babbar. At present, it is offering about 380 insurance products across various categories like health, car, pet, life, and others by tying with about 46 insurance companies. 
 
Praveen Sridharan, Partner at TVS Capital highlighted that even though insurance is a vital component to provide everyone financial security, its penetration is still very low. It is currently about 4.2 per cent of Indian GDP compared to the global average of 7.4 per cent. “The key for this is to access the middle and lower middle income class—the next 400 million—living in the next 1000 towns of India,” Sridharan noted.
 
InsuranceDekho is providing its services across 1,300 cities across the country. Other players operating in a similar space include Acko, PolicyBazaar, Digit Insurance, OneAssist, and a few others. 

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