Gurgaon-based eTechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt Ltd, the company behind the online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar, is in advanced talks to raise $40 million (Rs 248 crore) from PremjiInvest, the personal investment vehicle of Wipro chairman Azim Premji, and a few other investors, sources privy to the development told VCCircle.
“Existing investors Tiger Global, Intel Capital, Inventus Capital and Info Edge are also likely to participate in this round,†said one of the source.
The funding will be used for upgrading the technology, marketing, and building out the company’s recently launched platform PaisaBazaar.com which is into loans, credit cards, mutual funds, corporate deposits, gold funds and exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
While PolicyBazaar’s CEO Yashish Dahiya confirmed that the company is in talks with multiple investors, he refused to comment on the quantum of funding as well as the names of potential investors.
We have also contacted Rajesh Ramaiah, CFO & operating partner, PremjiInvest, besides all existing investors for more information, and will update the post as and when we hear from them.
Started in 2008, the company’s flagship product PolicyBazaar offers comparison of various insurance policies and loans based on price, quality and key benefits, in addition to helping consumers with analysis of financial products based on the same parameters.
In May last year, PolicyBazaar.com had raised $20 million in its Series C round of funding from Tiger Global. Prior to that, the company had raised $5 million led by Inventus Capital Partners. Existing investors Info Edge and Intel Capital also took part in this round. Info Edge had put in Rs 2.5 crore in that round, taking its total exposure to Rs 32.5 crore with 32 per cent stake in the firm.
In Feb 2014, it had appointed Naveen Kukreja as group CMO and director of its non-insurance business.