Insurtech player InsuranceDekho has raised $60 million in its ongoing Series B funding round, marking a significant milestone for the company. With this latest capital infusion, a mix of equity and debt, the company has attracted new marquee investors to its cap table while reaffirming the confidence of existing investors. 

This is the second capital raise for the Gurugram-based start-up in 2023, taking its total fundraising to over $200 million. In February, InsuranceDekho secured $150 million in one of the most significant Series A funding raised by an insurtech in South Asia.

Japanese giant Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc (MUFG), the insurer BNP Paribas Cardif, through its insurtech fund managed by European investment major Eurazeo, India-focused Beams Fintech Fund and Yogesh Mahansaria Family Office has come on board as new investors. InsuranceDekho's existing investors, TVS Capital, Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Avataar Ventures, also invested in the company.

InsuranceDekho plans to utilise the proceeds from this funding round to boost its marketing activities, further expand its distribution presence in the Indian hinterland, scale up its tech platform, explore inorganic growth opportunities, and for new initiatives like reinsurance to continue democratising India's insurance landscape.

Claiming that the country's insurance sector is at the cusp of a tech-backed revolution, Ankit Agrawal, CEO and founder of InsuranceDekho, said, "Our aim has always been to make insurance accessible and user-friendly for all Indians, and this funding will allow us to accelerate our efforts, reach more customers, and innovate further in the Insurtech space."

Founded by Agrawal and Ish Babbar in 2017, InsuranceDekho is on track to achieve Rs 3,600 crores premium this financial year and is targeting to have 2,00,000 agent partners on its platform by March 2024. It is present in over 1500 regions, covering 98 per cent of pin codes across the country. It gets a 90 per cent premium from tier 2 and beyond areas and claims to have served more than 6 million customers to date.

InsuranceDekho was incubated within the auto-tech and IPO-bound unicorn CarDekho Group. The brand name is owned by Girnar Insurance Brokers, which was incorporated in 2016 and was granted the license to act as a Direct Insurance Broker by the Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India (IRDAI) in 2017. It enables its consumers to compare different insurance policies based on their requirements and helps them purchase the most suitable plan.  

Amit Jain, CEO and co-founder of CarDekho, said, "InsuranceDekho is expanding at a rapid pace and reaching remarkable milestones. The capital infused will accelerate its growth trajectory, providing the impetus to reach more underserved markets with a reliable insurance platform. This investment brings the company one step closer to its vision of enhancing nationwide insurance penetration."

Shashank Joshi, Deputy CEO of MUFG Bank, India, added that the company's entry into the Insurtech sector signifies a strategic commitment to increase insurance accessibility in India. "InsuranceDekho's tech-driven last-mile distribution model perfectly aligns with our vision of advancing insurance outreach in India," he opined. 

This is Eurazeo's first investment in India with the insurer BNP Paribas Cardif. Matthieu Baret, managing partner-venture at Eurazeo, said that after its investments in China, Indonesia and Singapore, the company is extending its footprint to become a leading player in Asia. 

Sagar Agarvwal, the managing partner of Beams Fintech Fund, noted how his company had spent a lot of time in the insurtech space to identify the challenges in the manufacturing and distribution of insurance in India. The sector is marred with low penetration, lack of trust, mis-selling, limited access and affordability. 

"Within this complex space, we found InsuranceDekho, led by the incredibly talented team of Agrawal and Babbar, building a large platform not just solving the penetration problem but also fostering trust and providing peace of mind to millions in India. In India's diverse and growing insurance market, where protection and financial security are paramount, the potential for growth in this sector is immense and InsuranceDekho is building a robust platform to capitalise on this opportunity," he stated. 

Rajat Sood, managing director at Goldman Sachs Asset Management, felt that InsuranceDekho has continuously helped improve insurance penetration in India by bringing value-added solutions to the insurance market using its technology platform and capitalising on its expanding distribution partner network. "We have been supporting the company's growth by leveraging our network and resources, and we look forward to creating more value as InsuranceDekho continues to scale up its business," he said.