Varun Dua went through a series of jobs and ventures before he finally created India’s emerging Unicorn member - Acko. 

After finishing college, Dua joined the advertising and marketing world. Soon he lost the attraction in the sector and switched to a freelance insurance project. For the next couple of years, he collected his learnings in the insurance sector with Tata AIG and Franklin Templeton. 

With his learnings, he created Coverfox, an online insurance aggregator in 2013. Coverfox rivalled against PolicyBazaar who had market dominance since its inception. This didn’t satisfy Dua’s desire to do more for the sector. Then in 2018, Dua along with Ruchi Deepak created their crowning glory - Acko. Acko is a general insurance startup that specializes in giving ‘bite-sized insurance’ ranging from Re 1 to Rs 600. Their success has been solid. Since its inception, they have sold policies to over 50 million customers. 

There are a total of 25 Indian general insurance companies that collectively collect Rs 10,800 crore worth by processing premiums. In FY19 their gross written premium was at Rs 141.89 crores. It jumped to Rs 373.07 crores in the next fiscal year. In FY21 Acko’s premium income was Rs 145 crore. They are likely to cross the threshold of $150 million in premiums by the fiscal year 2022. 

In 2019, Acko won the ‘Golden Peacock Innovative Product Award for their unique microinsurance product in collaboration with Ola named - “Ola Ride Insurance.” Next year they won the FICCI Insurance Industry Awards in the category - Most Innovative Insure in Non-Life Segment. Earlier this year, they received the Best Insurtech Company Award at the BW Festival of Fintech 2021. 

The potential of Acko wasn’t missed on anyone. Right in its maiden Seed Round, Acko bagged $30 million from the likes of N.R. Narayan Murthy and Kris Gopalakrishnan. With its Series B and C funding, the giant Amazon backed the new startup and raised an additional $12 and $65 million respectively. Next came a Venture Round where they raised $36 million with Ascent Capital and Binny Bansal. Later in September 2020 came their Series D round where Munich Re Ventures raised $60 million. In total Acko has raised $203 million in all their five rounds of funding. 

Bloomberg reports that the startup also plans for a public listing this year. Talks are that after their next funding round, Acko’s valuation would be more than $1 billion. After the boost given by the pandemic and the general rise of digital insurance, there’s no doubt Acko with its market position is going to attract more success. 

For the next funding round, Acko is already in talks with General Atlantic, Multiples Alternate Asset Management and FinTLV Ventures. Whether existing investors, Amazon, Accel, Elevation Capital, participate is unknown. Who do you think will lead the next round of funding to morph Acko into India’s next unicorn member?