Insurance startup Acko raises $65M funding from Binny Bansal and others

Online insurance startup Acko raised $65 million in its Series C round from Binny Bansal, Co-founder and former CEO of Flipkart, RPS Ventures led by SoftBank's former managing partner Kabir Misra, and Intact Ventures, corporate venture arm of Canada’s largest property and casualty insurer.

The round also saw participation from existing investors including Amazon, Accel Partners, SAIF Partners and TechPro Ventures.

Binny Bansal has reportedly invested $25 million in Acko through this round. With this latest round of Series C funding, Acko’s total funds raised stands at $107 million. Avendus Capital was the advisor to Acko on this fundraise. 

Last May, the insurtech startup had raised $12 million as a part of its Series A funding led by Amazon. Prior to that, it raised one of the highest seed funding in the Indian startup ecosystem - $30 million - in May 2017.   

Founded by Varun Dua in 2016, Acko General Insurance provides relevant insurance products, catering to the needs of the digitally-savvy consumer. The company uses a direct-to-consumer approach for distributing motor insurance, allowing for favourable risk selection and superior underwriting. 

Also read: Online Insurance startup Acko raises $12 M led by Amazon

Acko also offers innovative and bite-sized insurance products such as rider insurance, mobile and appliance protection, ticket cancellation, etc., and has partnered with more than 15 consumer internet players including Ola, Amazon, redBus, Zomato and UrbanClap. The company claims to have distributed insurance policies to over 20 million unique customers after 12 months of starting operations.

Speaking on the investment, Founder and CEO Varun Dua said,

“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.”

He added that as the company grows, it will be raising more capital in compliance with the guidelines of the regulator.

Binny Bansal said,

"Technology led insurance is expected to play a significant role in growth of the underpenetrated insurance sector in India."  

This year, the Flipkart Co-founder invested in two other startups - AI-based healthcare venture Niramai Health Analytix and learning-based platform, Crio. 

Kabir Misra, Managing Partner at RPS Ventures, said,

 “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.”

The company is also backed by Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, Swiss Re, Transamerica Ventures, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder of Infosys, Atul Nishar, Founder and Chairman of Hexaware Technologies, Ashish Dhawan of ChrysCapital, Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock, Rajeev Gupta, veteran investment banker and Founder of Arpwood Capital, as well as Subba Rao of NuVentures and Venk Krishnan.

Also read: [Podcast] From IIT-Delhi to building Flipkart, how Binny Bansal became the poster boy of the Indian startup ecosystem and what he's up to now

Why Binny Bansal chose to launch tech startup xto10x Technologies for his second innings