Bengaluru:
Tech based general insurer Acko has raised $65 million in its Series C financing round, from Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart; RPS Ventures, led by KabirMisra, ex-managing partner at Softbank; and Intact Ventures Inc. – corporate venture arm of Canada’s largest property & casualty insurer.
The round also saw participation from existing investors such as Amazon, Accel, SAIFand TechPro Ventures.
With this latest round of Series C funding, Acko’stotal funds raised stands at $107Mn. Avendus Capital was the advisor to Acko on this fundraise.Previously, Acko raised $30 Mn in seed funding, one of the largest seed rounds for the Indian start-up ecosystem, and later raised Series B funding of US$12 Mn led by Amazon.
The company is backed by Amazon, Accel, SAIF, Intact Ventures, RPS Ventures, Binny Bansal -co-founder of Flipkart,Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, Swiss Re, Transamerica Ventures, Kris Gopalakrishnan – Co-founder of Infosys,AtulNishar – Founder & Chairman of Hexaware Technologies,Ashish Dhawan of ChrysCapital, Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock, Rajeev Gupta, veteran investment banker and Founder of Arpwood Capital, Subba Rao of NuVentures and Venk Krishnan.
Commenting on his investment,Binny Bansal said, "Technology led insurance is expected to play a significant role in growth of the underpenetrated insurance sector in India." He further added,“Acko is the pioneer of digital-native insurance and I am delighted to partner in its exciting growth journey”
“We continue to be impressed by Acko’s focus on data-led innovations in the insurance sector that are solving for important customer needs in this sector. We are always excited to work with companies like Acko that are led by missionary founders and management teams and we remain committed to investing in technology-backed innovations that address real customer problems,” said Amit Agarwal, SVP and Country Head, Amazon India.
“The current round of funding demonstrates the confidence investors have in us and in our ability to transform how insurance will be delivered. We are excited to put the company on a rapid growth trajectory with this round of funding. Insurance is a capital intensive sector and as we grow, we will be raising more capital in compliance with the guidelines of the regulator” saidVarun Dua, Founder and CEO, Acko.
He further added, “We are very excited with the new partners coming on-board. Binny Bansal’s experience in scaling a technology-first company will prove extremely helpful in the next leg of our journey. We are delighted to be among the first investments of RPS Ventures. Intact is a pioneer in data and technology led insurance products in Canada and we look forward to leveragingtheir expertise.We're also glad to have Amazon's continued support and look to build on the next wave of product innovation.”
“We have strong conviction on the ensuing insurtech wave and more specifically in India which is hugely under penetrated and suffers from multiple gaps. We are excited to support Acko, which is transforming insurance through technology and data based underwriting and a unique customer-centric approach” said KabirMisra, Managing Partner atRPS Ventures, in a statement.
Founded by Varun Dua in 2016, Acko General Insurance, India’s first digital native insurer, offersan intuitive purchase experience, cheaper prices and stress-free claims.