German based Munich Re – one of the biggest reinsurance companies in the world – is in the advanced stage to lead $60 – 70 Mn funding round in Acko General Insurance, according to Economic Times (ET). This will be Acko Insurance’s first major funding of 2020.
The funding round will value Acko at approximately 500 Mn, according to the sources cited by ET. Techpluto reached out to Acko to elicit official response on the news report. However, company said it won’t comment on the news report.
Existing backers Amazon, RPS ventures and Intact ventures are also likely to participate in the funding round. But ET’s report did not comment about whether Flipkart’s co-founder Binny Bansal, who is also an existing investor in the company, will participate in the round or not.
Headquartered in Germany’s Capital Munich, Munich Re owns insurance group ERGO – one of the largest insurance groups in Europe. The company is known for investing in insurance companies across the world. Last year, it invested $250 Mn in California based insurance company Next Insurance.
Munich Re’s subsidiary ERGO offers insurance services in India through a joint venture ‘HDFC ERGO,’ with ERGO owning 49% stake in the joint venture company.
Meanwhile, Acko has till date raised $143 Mn through 4 funding rounds, according to Crunchbase. Its last major fundraising of $ 20 Mn came in November. A bridge round of $16 Mn from Ascent Capital preceded this few months back. The company has total 19 investors and among them Binny Bansal, Ascent Capital and Amazon are its lead investors.
It is probably the only insurance startup to be backed by e-commerce giant Amazon and heavy weigh investor like Binny Bansal. The company competes with Digit Insurance and SoftBank backed PolicyBazaar.
Acko is founded by Varun Dua, who was earlier the CEO of insurance startup CoverFox. Such is the clout of Dua among the investors that investors assured an investment of $30 Mn for his insurance startup Acko, much before it was officially launched in 2017.