InsuranceDekho raises $150 mn funding led by Goldman Sachs, TVS

Insurtech platform InsuranceDekho on Tuesday said it has raised $150 million in a Series A funding round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TVS Capital Funds.

The investment, which is a mix of equity and debt, also saw equity participation from Investcorp, Avataar Ventures, and LeapFrog Investments.

The latest funding will be used to scale up InsuranceDekho's product and technology functions, expand to new markets, launch new innovative products in the health and life categories, grow the company's Micro, Small & Medium Enterprise (MSME) insurance business, strengthen its leadership team and pursue inorganic growth opportunities, the startup says in a statement.

The fundraising comes at a time when startups have been reeling under a funding winter that has forced many firms to cut costs and announce layoffs.

Founded by Ankit Agrawal and Ish Babbar in 2016, InsuranceDekho aims to achieve an annualised premium run-rate of ₹3,500 crore by March 2023.

India is on the verge of a revolution in insurance, says Ankit Agrawal, CEO and co-founder, InsuranceDekho. "We need to go beyond the urban regions when it comes to insurance penetration in the country. To realize our goal of democratizing insurance for the general public, 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," Agrawal adds.

InsuranceDekho gets 82% of its premium from Tier 2 and beyond regions. The startup claims it is present in more than 1,300 towns covering 98% of pin codes in India.

"Insurance distribution in India is a complex problem that needs innovative solutions. The fundraise will enable us to deploy scalable Insurtech solutions in the areas of data analytics, Artificial Intelligence, last mile servicing and claims management while keeping customer experience at the core of everything," says IshBabbar, co-founder and chief technology officer, InsuranceDekho.

By the end of this calendar year, InsuranceDekho aims to have more than 200,000 insurance advisors active on its platform.

"Technological innovation is transforming the Indian insurance industry by making coverage more accessible and affordable. 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. We look forward to leveraging our global domain expertise and supporting the management team in its expansion to provide broader coverage and more solutions nationwide," says Rajat Sood, managing director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management.

InsuranceDekho claims it has direct integration with 46 insurance companies across India offering more than 380 insurance products including 175 products for health and life.

"Though insurance is vital for financial security of everyone, its penetration is still at 4.2% of Indian GDP compared to global overage of 7.4%. The key for this is to access the middle and lower middle income class—the next 400 million—living in the next 1000 towns of India," says Praveen Sridharan, partner, TVS Capital Funds.