Turtlemint Insurance Services Pvt. Ltd, which runs insurtech platform Turtlemint, on Wednesday rolled out its first overseas unit in Dubai, as the company looks to expand its business footprint in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
The move comes within a month after it raised $120 million (Rs 918 crore) in a Series E round led by Amansa Capital, Jungle Ventures and Nexus Venture Partners.
The firm’s UAE office will be spearheaded by Laxmikant Pawar, who was with Mashreq Bank and Oman Insurance in the region. It is also planning to onboard multiple talents across departments in FY23 to ramp up its operations.
Turtlemint said in a statement that the expansion will help to scale its digital insurance platform offering for enterprises, Turtlefin.
The company claims to have grown significantly since its inception in 2015, raising close to $190 million from marquee investors like GGV Capital, American Family Ventures, Blume Ventures and Sequoia Capital India, among others.
“With this expansion we are geared to address the rising demand witnessed in the Middle East region, where banks are demonstrating an increased desire to provide superior digital services. We recognised a need for a technology partner in the current traditional banking landscape of the region.
We aim to bridge this gap with Turtlefin’s comprehensive technology platform and support the BFSI community at large,” said Dhirendra Mahyavanshi, co-founder at Turtlemint.
“We see a massive opportunity in the Middle East market to assist banks and financial institutions in becoming digital-first by improving their value chain. With Turtlefin, we have digitised and simplified the entire insurance distribution value chain benefiting all stakeholders,” said Anand Prabhudesai, co-founder at Turtlemint.
In a similar space, Bengaluru-based insurtech startup Fedo, which had raised $1 million (about Rs 7.43 crore) in a pre-Series A funding led by Unicorn India Ventures, is also planning an expansion into Southeast Asia and Australia.
Global investment in insurance technology (insurtech) startups totalled $10.5 billion in the first nine months of 2021, a record high level for the period, reinsurance broker Willis Re said.
