Times of India has reported that Amazon is leading a $12 million funding round in online-only insurance startup, Acko General Insurance, as the e-commerce major takes a bet on the financial services segment in India. Ashish Dhawan, the founder of private equity fund, ChrysCapital, has also joined in the latest round, along with an existing investor, NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures. The deal pegs Acko’s valuation at about $100 million.
Amazon is expected to co-create financial products with the insurance tech startup – besides being its distributor. Flipkart, too, had held discussions with Acko for an investment but those talks fell through.
Source: Central Square Foundation
The Mumbai-based Acko had spun off in 2016, as an independent entity post a restructuring at online insurance aggregator Coverfox, which saw its co-founder and CEO Varun Dua, step down to kickstart the insurtech platform. “It’s early days for Acko in a large and seemingly complex space like insurance. We are building an insurance company for the long haul, which needs investors with the same outlook. Both Amazon and Ashish Dhawan, would provide us with the ability to think strategically and for the long term, ” Dua, founder & CEO, of Acko said.
Acko, wants to build insurance products for the new economy. Among the services it offers are Ola insurance, mobile insurance. The insurance covers also extend to claims for Ola rides, mobile repairs.
Source: JustDial
Acko Technologies, is the parent of Acko General Insurance, which received an in-principle regulatory clearance to launch last year. It got Rs 200 crore in May 2017 from Catamaran Ventures, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock, venture funds Accel Partners and SAIF Partners, among others. Accel, SAIF and Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran are also investors in Coverfox.
“Acko is a young and nimble startup bringing technology and data-led innovation to the insurance sector to deliver a better insurance experience for customers,” said Amit Agarwal, SVP and country manager, Amazon India, in a prepared statement. Amazon’s bet on selling financial products in the domestic market is aligned with the online retailer’s strategy to diversify its customer base here.
Globally, a slew of well-funded insurance technology ventures like Zhong An, an Alibaba and Tencent-backed China’s first online insurance company, which was started in 2013 and Trov and Lemonade in the US are disrupting the traditional insurers by focusing on younger consumers with customized and targeted products who largely transact digitally.