Mumbai-based Turtlemint raises $25M funding led by Sequoia Capital

Online insurance platform, Turtlemint has announced that it has raised $25 million in fresh funding from Sequoia Capital, along with existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.

Turtlemint was founded in 2015 by Dhirendra Mahyavanshi and Anand Prabhudesai, both of whom were previously a part of the management team at Quikr, and have held operational roles in companies such as ICICI Lombard, Yahoo, eBay, and Nokia.

The capital will be invested to grow by ten-fold over the coming year, while hiring 100 more individuals across its technology functions. The technology platform works with close to 25,000 partners and agents to sell its products, and provides insurance for car, health, and life.

The company claims to have sold 300,000 policies until now, worth Rs 20 crore.

The funding will also be used to add videos to the platform, educate customers about different products, and facilitate agents on the platform to sell better.

The company had raised an undisclosed amount from Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures in February 2016.

Over the last year, the insurance space has seen established players announcing their entry and many others raising big rounds.

Last year, insurance conglomerate PolicyBazaar raised more than $200 million from Softbank, announcing its entry into the Unicorn club.

According to YourStory Research, in 2018, all major insurtech players, including Coverfox, Digit Insurance, Acko, and others, raked up as $333 million in funding, a massive uptick from the mere $13 million, the sector raised in 2016.

While Amazon invested $12 million in Acko in May, Mumbai-based Coverfox also raised $22 million in April, led by International Finance Corp., and existing investor Transamerica.

In July, Bengaluru-based insurtech startup Digit Insurance also announced that it had raised $44 million in a second round of funding led by Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Holdings.

Apart from this, payments startup MobiKwik also announced its foray into insurance focusing on categories like accident cover and health. Payments decacorn, Paytm also offers insurance on its platform currently and had registered two separate entites last year.