[Funding alert] Acko turns unicorn with $1.1B valuation after raising $255M in a round led by General Atlantic and Multiples

Insurtech startup ACKO Insurance, founded five years ago, is the latest to join the unicorn club after raising $255 million in Series D round, which has valued the company at $1.1 billion.

Acko is now the 34^th startup to enter India's growing list of unicorns, and the second insurtech startup to become a unicorn. Digit Insurance is another insurtech startup which became a unicorn in January, 2021.

The Series D funding round was led by private equity firms General Atlantic and Multiples. It also saw participation from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Lightspeed as well as existing investors, Intact Ventures and Munich Re Ventures.

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Founded by Varun Dua and Ruchi Deepak, Acko is a digital platform for insurance products, which has over 70 million customers and clocking a run-rate of $150 million in premiums.

The total funds raised by Acko till now stands at $450 million and the past investors include Amazon, Accel, Elevation, Ascent Capital, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, among others.

Acko Founder and CEO Varun Dua said,

“Acko has meaningfully redefined the protection category for consumers and plans to continue innovating in the space. We strongly believe in supporting our customers in protecting their valued assets or the health and safety of their loved ones via a differentiated product and value-added service. Insurance and protection must work for people based on their unique risks and needs in a seamless, reliable fashion.”

Acko intends to further invest in the healthcare vertical and scale its team, particularly within technology, product, and data science. It enables buying of insurance products across the category of vehicles, health and electronics.

Acko has tied up with companies like Amazon, MakeMyTrip, Ola, Urban Company, and Bajaj Finance, among others, to have embedded insurance products. In addition, it covers nearly a million gig workers through partnerships with companies including Zomato and Swiggy.

“We have succeeded on the auto front and will continue to scale and innovate in our flagship auto insurance business,” Varun said, and added that it intends to invest over $150 million in the health business in the near future.

Shantanu Rastogi, Managing Director, General Atlantic, said,

“Acko has developed a differentiated and scalable business model based on a singular customer focus, value-based pricing, highly-rated service and deep technology capabilities.”

He further noted, “We believe that Acko, with its disruptive business model and strength in execution, has the potential to emerge as an insurer-of-choice for the 100 million-strong digitally-native Indian customer base over the next decade.”