Gurgaon-based online policy aggregator PolicyBazaar, owned and operated by EtechAces Marketing and Consulting has raised $77 million in the latest funding round led by global asset management firm Wellington Management, private equity firm True North and IDG Ventures India. Post the funding round, the company is now valued at around $500 million. A number of existing investors including investment firm Tiger Global Management, PremjiInvest and Temasek, the government of Singapore-owned investment company also participated in the funding round.
Founded in 2008 by Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar, alumni of IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad, the company has till date raised around $86 million. The newly acquired funding will be used by the company to invest in technology, customer service and increasing their geographical expansion.
This funding will help PolicyBazaar to get a cutting edge over its rivals, CoverFox and EasyPolicy, which also sell insurance online. The company is also planning for a potential public listing, however, it is still unclear whether this funding round is being considered as a pre-IPO round.
Wellington Management, which manages assets worth $1 trillion, has backed a number of successful Silicon Valley companies like Airbnb and Pinterest. This investment in PolicyBazaar is expected to be its first in a privately held technology company.
The company broke even in the financial year 2016-17 with a total revenue of around $33.8 million as against $16.7 million in the year 2015-16.
India’s online insurance segment has flourished decently and has become a hunting ground for a number of popular global investors. In June, online insurance brokerage Coverfox raised about $15 million in a Series C funding round led by Transamerica. Also, the government of India has approved the ordinance to increase the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in the insurance sector from 26 percent to 49 percent. This policy will further attract popular investors to the sector.
EtechAces also owns another online marketplace for loans and credit cars, PaisaBazaar.