Online insurance marketplace Policybazaar to raise Rs 6,500 Cr in IPO

Online insurance marketplace Policybazaar is aiming to raise around Rs 6,500 crore in its initial public offering (IPO), a few media reports said on Wednesday, citing RoC filings by the startup's parent company, PB Fintech.

The Gurgaon, Harayana-based startup's IPO could come by November-December, and will value Policybazaar at $4 billion to $5 billion, reports said. The valuation is higher than what the startup had previously planned for, the story added.

Policybazaar's plans for an IPO were approved at its extraordinary general meeting (EGM) held earlier this month. The company also passed a resolution to rename the company to PB Fintech.

The IPO may see the company undertake a secondary share sale, on top of fresh issue, to give early investors an exit or some time to offload their stakes, news reports said.

Founded in 2008 by Yashish Dahiya, Policybazaar's investors include Softbank, Tencent, Azim Premji-owned PremjiInvest, Falcon Edge Capital, and Tiger Global, among several others. It has raised a total of $766.6 million in over 13 rounds, so far, according to data aggregator Crunchbase.

Policybazaar's IPO comes on the heels of several startups charting a course to the capital markets this year, including Zomato, Paytm and Nykaa. Zomato's pre-IPO sale was oversubscribed manifolds, even in the retail sector, and the company's stock is expected to debut on July 27.

Paytm filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) last week, outlining a Rs 16,600 crore IPO.

Policybazaar's plan to file an IPO was first reported by news website Entrackr.

The startup posted a loss of Rs 218 crore in FY 20, compared with a loss of Rs 213 crore the previous year. It recently received an insurance broking licence from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) to sell insurance offline, following which it said it would open 15 outlets, and eventually, 100.