InsuranceDekho eyes Series A funding of $10-15 m
InsuranceDekho, an online venture from CarDekho Group that offers multiple insurance services, will look to raise Series A funding of $1015 million in the next threefour months, according to a top official.
“As we get into multiple business lines with more products, we will need capital.
“The insurance distribution industry in the country needs more capital,” Ankit Agarwal, CEO and Cofounder, InsuranceDekho, told BusinessLine.
InsuranceDekho, a twoand-a-half-old start-up, is a broking outfit that focusses on auto insurance in the used car space.
“We want to be the OEM broker for used car insurance,” said Agarwal.
In India, the used car segment is not regulated and also used car insurance is not mandatory. Agarwal said that insurance still has to reach Tier 2, 3 and 4 cities — be it for motor, health, or life — and InsuranceDekho is looking to penetrate in those cities for growth.
Before InsuranceDekho came into the scene, there was no platform in the used automobile industry, where a customer could walk into a used car dealership or a showroom and get a policy issued immediately.
“Before we came in, the policy issuance for used car could take between two to seven days. We have now created a seamless process and policy gets issued immediately.
“We have trained used-car dealers to sell insurance and has converted the dealership into an insurance selling point,” he said.
India is looking to allow up to 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in insurance intermediaries — a move which was announced in the recent Budget, but yet to be implemented through the required legal enactment.
Any such move could help players like InsuranceDekho raise long-term equity capital from foreign investors in the coming days.
InsuranceDekho, on an average, sells 40,000 policies and clocks premium of ₹45 crore per month.
Partnership
“At a later phase, I would like to rope in a strategic partner for distribution,” said Agarwal, when asked if he plans to tie up with other players to expand reach in interior India. “Right now, sky is the limit for us. Once we get to annualised premium of ₹5,000-6,000 crore in the next 18 months, we will then start looking at other things,” he said.
Agency network
Apart from training used car dealers, InsuranceDekho is also building its agency network. Plans are afoot to build out an insurance claims advisory desk and work with insurance companies to bring down their claims cost, said Agarwal.
Besides used car insurance, InsuranceDekho has presence in health insurance too.