[Funding alert] Insurtech startup Acko raises $16M from Ascent Capital

Bengaluru-based online insurance startup Acko has raised fresh funding of $16 million from growth stage investment firm Ascent Capital.

Acko did not respond to queries from YourStory when we reached out for a comment.

Acko is only one of the two insurance startups that has an IRDAI licence. While there has been no official confirmation from either Acko or Binny Bansal, ex-CEO and founder of Flipkart , a few media reports suggest that the latter may have invested around $20 million in Acko.

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If Binny had invested $20 million in the former, he would have made a total cheque for $45 million in the startup. The former Flipkart founder invested $25 million in Acko when the startup raised its Series C round of $65 million from RPS Ventures (managed by former Softbank managing partner Kabir Mishra), Intact Ventures, Amazon, Accel Partners, SAIF Partners, and TechPro Ventures.

In May last year, Acko raised Series B funding of $12 million. The insurtech startup raised $12 million as part of its Series A funding led by Amazon. Prior to that, it raised $30 million, one of the highest seed funding in the Indian startup ecosystem, in May 2017.   

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

Acko also offers innovative and bite-sized insurance products like rider insurance, mobile and appliance protection, ticket cancellation. It 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.

Acko also has backing from NR Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, Swiss Re, Transamerica Ventures, Kris Gopalakrishnan of Infosys, Atul Nishar of Hexaware Technologies, Ashish Dhawan of ChrysCapital, Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock, Rajeev Gupta of Arpwood Capital and Subba Rao of NuVentures and Venk Krishnan, NuWare founder.

(Edited by Megha Reddy)

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