Online insurance startup Acko Technology and Services Pvt. Ltd has raised $12 million in a fresh round led by Amazon India, the company said in a statement on Sunday.
New investor Ashish Dhawan and existing investor Catamaran Ventures, owned by Narayana Murthy, also participated in the funding round.
The fresh infusion takes Acko’s total equity funding to about $42 million.
The online insurance platform had raised $30 million in seed money in May 2017 from venture capital and angel investors, including Accel Partners, SAIF Partners and Kris Gopalakrishnan, among others.
Founded by Coverfox co-founder Varun Dua in 2016, Acko offers general insurance products such as auto and smartphone insurance on its online platform.
The startup also has a partnership with Ola for providing trip insurance to the ride-hailing firm’s customers.
In an interview in July last year, Dua had said that the online insurance platform, which had got its licence from Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA) last September, was also considering foraying into the health insurance space with products for dental treatment, besides schemes for pets.
He had also said Acko will not have offline branches for sales, but will operate offline centres for insurance claims.
“Acko is a young and nimble startup bringing technology and data-led innovation to the insurance sector to deliver better experience for customers. We are excited to back companies that are focused on using technology for enhanced customer experience and are led by missionary founders and management teams,” said Amit Agarwal, senior vice-president, Amazon India.
The online insurance platform competes with Coverfox, which had recently raised $22 million, besides Fairfax Financial Holdings-backed Digit Insurance, and Policybazaar, which counts Tiger Global and Premji Invest as its investors.
Digital payments firm Paytm, which claims to have 300 million users, had also floated two new insurance units in February to offer non-life and general insurance products.
Source: Mint