Insurance marketplace InsuranceDekho, backed by TVS Capital and Goldman Sachs Asset Management, is set to acquire a majority stake in BankSathi, a distributor of credit cards and personal loans which counts Kotak Securities and Lets Venture as backers, two people in the know said.
The deal, which is nearing completion, may provide liquidity to angel investors in BankSathi, the people added.
BankSathi had raised $7.5 million in equity funding rounds and was last valued at $27.5 million in 2022, as per Tracxn.
The deal is likely to be a share swap wherein BankSathi shareholders will receive a stake in InsuranceDekho. ET could not determine details of the share-swap ratio.
“It will be a majority deal and BankSathi will in all likelihood continue to operate as an independent entity focusing on distributing consumer credit products,” said one of the people.
The acquisition will enable InsuranceDekho, which operates a large network of insurance agents on the field, to build capabilities around selling credit products too.
Emails sent to both the companies did not elicit any response.
This would be InsuranceDekho’s third acquisition after buying out Gujarat-based insurance distributor IRSS and insurance broker Verak in 2023.
Founded in 2021, BankSathi, an agent-based financial products distribution platform, enables digital sales agents or DSAs and financial advisors to distribute credit and savings products. The startup relies on a social commerce model but focuses primarily on credit cards and personal loans.
Bengaluru-based BankSathi received an Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India licence to operate as a corporate agent in March 2022. It claims to be the third-largest credit card distributor in India with an annual issuance run rate of 360,000 cards as of June 2023. The company counts prominent angel investors like Cred founder Kunal Shah, Zerodha founder Nithin Kamath, Unacademy CEO Gaurav Munjal and institutional investors such as QED Innovation Labs as its investors.
InsuranceDekho has raised more than $310 million in multiple equity funding rounds. The latest was an around $60 million round that closed in October 2023 and pushed up the valuation of the startup to around $750 million. The company counts Japanese financial services major Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, BNP Paribas Cardif and Beams Fintech as its major investors.
Ankit Agrawal, chief executive officer of Gurugram-headquartered InsuranceDekho, had said back in 2023 that the company was scouting for some acquisition targets.
InsuranceDekho competes with the likes of listed company Policybazaar and venture-funded Turtlemint.
Source: Economic Times