At a time when the funding winter has made it difficult for numerous startups to raise funds and investors are tightening their purse strings, there have been a handful of firms who have successfully negotiated the prevailing adverse conditions in the market. Indian insurance platform InsuranceDekho is one of those, and now, it has nabbed $150 million in fresh funding.
The Series A funding round was led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and homegrown private-equity firm TVS Capital and a mixture of equity and debt. The round, which included the participation of Investcorp, Avataar Ventures and LeapFrog Investments as well, includes about $40 million in debt and $110 million in equity.
“We need to go beyond the urban regions when it comes to insurance penetration in the country. 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,” Ankit Agrawal, co-founder and chief executive officer at InsuranceDekho said. It is set to deploy the funds towards scaling up its product and technology functions, funding growth to new markets and in Tier III-IV towns, and pursuing inorganic growth. It also intends to strengthen its leadership team, launch new innovative products in the health and life categories, and grow its MSME insurance business with the fresh round of funding.
The valuation of the InsuranceDekho after the funding round hovers between $475-500 million, although the Gurugram-headquartered startup declined to comment on the matter. “InsuranceDekho has demonstrated a proven ability to bring new-to-insurance channel partners to their platform while empowering them through technology-based solutions and working closely with insurers,” said Rajat Sood, managing director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
The Series A funding marks the 10th investment from TVS Capital Fund’s ₹2,000 crores third private equity fund, which has already backed Go Digit General Insurance. The fund usually invests in financial services, business-to-business services, and niche consumer segment bets, and will continue to invest in insurtech companies such as InsuranceDekho. The Gurugram-headquartered startup has carved a nache of its own in the Indian insurance segment, and today, it claims to be directly integrated with 46 insurance companies across India, offering more than 380 insurance products, including 175 for health and life. It plans on reaching an annualised premium run rate of ₹3,500 crores by next month.
