Will general insurance company Acko enter the unicorn club?

▴ Will general insurance company Acko enter the unicorn club?
In their seed round, Acko gathered $30 million. Since then they have raised $203 million in five rounds of fundraising. Will their next fund round boost Acko into India's Unicorn Club?

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?

Tags : #Acko #VarunDua #RuchiDeepak #startupupdate #funding #corporateupdate #Amazon #insurtech #medicircle #smitakumar

Related Stories

Loading Please wait...

-Advertisements-




Trending Now

A New Dawn for Eye Health in Obesity: How Bariatric Surgery Repairs Early Eye DamageDecember 14, 2024
Healing Invisible Wounds: How Indian Government’s Bold Initiatives Are Tackling the Mental Health CrisisDecember 14, 2024
The 8-Hour Miracle: Here’s How Doctors Rewrote a Young Girl’s FateDecember 14, 2024
University of Manchester invites applications for MSc Climate Change: Science, Society and Solutions December 13, 2024
Pollution vs. Population: Can India Survive Its Toxic Air?December 13, 2024
New Milestone: First Cryopreserved Stem Cell Donation Helps Blood Cancer Patient December 13, 2024
Everest Medicines Announces the First Prescription of VELSIPITY(R) Issued in MacauDecember 13, 2024
Plastic Pollution Goes Personal: Microplastics Found in Human BloodDecember 12, 2024
The Fat-Fuelled Weapon Against Cancer: How the Keto Lifestyle is Redefining Cancer TherapyDecember 12, 2024
Gene Therapy in India: How Indian Scientists Redefined Hemophilia TreatmentDecember 12, 2024
Empowering India’s Workforce: FinX Raises $6M from Elevar Equity to revolutionise employability in the BFSI IndustryDecember 12, 2024
India’s Win Over Malaria: A Global Health Victory in ProgressDecember 11, 2024
TB-Free India by 2025: Bold Vision or Achievable Reality?December 11, 2024
Aakash Healthcare Supports the 14th Special Athletic Meet for Children with Special NeedsDecember 11, 2024
The University of Manchester invites applications for an MSc in International Disaster ManagementDecember 10, 2024
Preventing Mother-to-Child HIV Transmission: Strategies and ImportanceDecember 10, 2024
USIBC Signs MOU with Government of Telangana, Hosts AI and GCC Industry RoundtableDecember 10, 2024
CarDekho Group’s New Auto Segment’s Shift in Fuel Preferences Report: Electric Vehicles (EVs) Lead the Chart with 26% YoY Traffic Increase December 10, 2024
India’s leading eCommerce enablement platform Shiprocket appoints industry veteran Vivek Sharma as VP of International ShippingDecember 10, 2024
Failure to find all TB cases defeats us in #endTB effortsDecember 10, 2024