Insurance aggregator Policybazaar raises $150 million from Tencent
What's the story
Insurance aggregator company Policybazaar, which compares financial services from major insurance companies for instant purchases, has raised $150 million in a funding round led by Tencent Holdings Ltd.
With this investment, the Chinese conglomerate has acquired a 10% stake in the Gurugram-based company and has officially marked its entry into the Indian insurance market.
Here's everything to know about the fund-raise.
Policybazaar
Policybazaar: Largest insurance distributor in India
Policybazaar was started in 2008 by Alok Bansal and Yashish Dahiya as an insurance aggregator providing a comparative analysis of various insurance policies based on their price, quality and key benefits.
The start-up is now a leading global fin-tech company which claims to be the single largest insurance distributor in India outside of banks and sells over 400,000 insurance policies through its platform.
Future plans
How Policybazaar will utilize the fresh funds?
With the fresh funds, Policybazaar will expand its product portfolio and foray into newer segments to offer a mix of B2B and B2C financial services.
A source told YourStory, "PolicyBazaar is looking to launch newer ventures in the coming months, which will cover a host of financial services and is aiming to look strongly at [the] growth of these businesses and existing verticals."
Investments
The company is now valued at around $1.5 billion
Prior to this round, Policybazaar had raised $238 million in 2018 in a funding round led by Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and existing investor Info Edge, which rose its valuation to over $1 billion and marked its entry into the unicorn club.
And, with this round of investment, the company's valuation now stands at over $1.5 billion.
Information
Losses of Rs. 59 crore in FY18
Notably, ETechAces Marketing and Consulting, Policybazaar's parent company, had reported a loss of Rs. 59 crore for FY18. The losses were due to the tax liability payment and advertising as well as promotional expenses. The company hasn't revealed financials for FY19 yet.