InsuranceDekho, an insurance policy aggregator platform from the CarDekho Group, has mopped up another $60 million (about Rs 500 crore).
Japanese finance giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group and insurer BNP Paribas Cardif through its insurtech fund, managed by Eurazeo and Beams Fintech Fund, have participated in the Series B round, among others, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
Series A backers TVS Capital and Goldman Sachs Asset Management have also doubled down. In February, InsuranceDekho had raised $150 million in what the company called the largest Series A funding for an insurtech in South Asia. It has now raised upwards of $200 million in a year, becoming part of a club of very few startups that raised Series A (initial venture capital) and B (growth) funding in the same year.
According to Founder and Chief Executive Officer Ankit Agrawal, the funds would be used for three major reasons.
"We are looking at a couple of acquisition targets, which you should be hearing about soon. Second, we want to diversify our business. We have been in distribution of retail products. We also want to get into reinsurance now. Thirdly, we want to spend some money on branding and marketing," Agarwal told BQ Prime.
There are different synergies to explore with each investor joining the captable (capitalisation table) in this round, he said.
"With Mitsubishi, you get a lot of backing of how to build a global brand, a company which lives for decades. Eurazeo is an insurtech fund promoted by one of the largest European insurance companies. With them, we get the know-how on how to build a full-stack solution. Tomorrow, if the government of India and IRDAI regulations allow us to get into the managing general agent (MGA) business, we can leverage that. Having Beams is a step in the direction that we should build for Bharat (rural India)," he said.
In financial year 2023, InsuranceDekho posted a loss of about Rs 51.6 crore, narrowing from the Rs 72-crore loss in FY22. Its revenue from operations came in at Rs 96.5 crore, which was double its FY22 figure, according to data sourced from data intelligence platform PrivateCircle.
"Our core business has been profitable for the last two quarters now. We are investing some money in new initiatives, but at a company level we should be profitable by the end of December. In Q4, we are looking at being profitable at a PAT level," he said.
Agrawal said that InsuranceDekho has "enough and more capital" on the balance sheet now, making the field wide open for acquisitions.
"We are pretty open to the size of the asset. If the asset is good and it adds value, we have capital available to us. In fact, the amount we raised is just about 40% of the amount that was available to us," he said.
Agrawal said InsuranceDekho's current valuation is "significantly higher" than it was during the Series A round in February. "I am not at liberty to share the exact number, but we would be at least at a 50% higher valuation than the last valuation," he said.
Watch The Full Interview Here:
Essential Business Intelligence, Continuous LIVE TV, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
