Online insurance selling platform Policybazaar, which is operated by ETechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt. Ltd, has raised Rs 500 crore ($ 77 million) in a Series E funding round.
Ambit Pvt. Ltd, the Mumbai-based investment banking firm which advised the company on the transaction, confirmed the development and said that the sum was raised from both new and existing investors.
E-mail queries to Policybazaar co-founder and CEO Yashish Dahiya, however, did not elicit any response till the time of filing this report.
Earlier in the day, both Mint and The Economic Times, had reported that the company had raised the amount at a valuation of $500 million. At least three new investors, including True North, IDG Venture Partners and Boston-based assets management firm Wellington Management Group, had participated in the round.
Existing investors Temasek, Tiger Global Management and Premji Invest, besides other undisclosed investors, also participated in the round.
Separately, existing investor Info Edge (India) Ltd revealed in a regulatory filing that it had invested Rs 50.71 crore as part of the funding round. Info Edge bought five equity shares and 1,949 preferential shares at Rs 2.59 lakh apiece.
Dahiya told Mint that the money will be used to enhance customer services through technological innovations, besides backing Paisa Bazaar, its online loan and credit cards marketplace. The company is also considering foraying into mutual funds.
Paisa Bazaar, which was set up in 2014 is en-route to clock Rs 400 crore in revenue, Dahiya said, adding that the company also has plans to launch overseas operations, with West Asia, and more specifically Dubai, likely to be its first port of call.
The development comes at a time when talks of Policybazaar looking to close a pre-initial public offering funding round worth around $50 million were doing the rounds.
Dahiya told Mint that the company still has plans to go public by the end of 2018 after breaking even in November 2016.
Policybazaar’s revenue grew 29% to Rs 109.5 crore for 2015-16, while its losses went up to Rs 110 crore from Rs 65 crore in the year-ago period. For 2016-17, the company posted a 94.3% rise in revenue at Rs 212.87 crore, the Info Edge filing revealed.
According to Kanwal Rekhi, co-founder of Inventus Capital, which was an early investor in Policybazaar, the company has garnered nearly 70% of the market share.
Founded in 2008, it has raised around $154 million till date from Tiger Global, Premji Invest, Steadview Capital, ABG Capital and Ribbit Capital. Its early backers were InfoEdge and Intel Capital, according to VCC Edge, the data research platform of News Corp VCCircle.
*This article has been updated to add information disclosed by Info Edge (India) Ltd.
