Tiger Gobal invests $20M in Series C in online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar

Gurgaon-based eTechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt Ltd, owner of online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar, has raised Rs 119 crore ($20 million) in Series C round of funding.

A source privy to the development told Techcircle.in that Tiger Global Management infused the money into Policybazaar.

"We cannot disclose the names of the investors, who have participated in this round. All I can say is that our existing investors did not participate in this round, and it has been closed with a new investor," said Yashish Dahiya, co-founder and CEO of PolicyBazaar. "The capital will be used to strengthen our technology and enhance brand awareness. We are focusing on educating the customers on the advantages of comparing insurance products on PolicyBazaar.com before making any insurance purchase decision," Dahiya said.

The development was disclosed by Info Edge (India) Ltd, which runs a slew of internet properties, including Naukri.com,99acres.com, Jeevansathi.com and Shiksha.com, and is one of the early backers of PolicyBazaar. Info Edge previously held 32 per cent in the firm. It said its stake has now diluted to around 23 per cent, accounting for 10 per cent equity dilution due to ESOP pool besides the fresh funding. Back of the envelope calculations suggest the latest funding puts a post money valuation of around $100 million.

He claims that PolicyBazaar has grown its premium collection 28 times over the past three years, and now plans to grow about 10x over next three years.

According to Dahiya, risk-based insurance hasn't received the importance it deserves. "We want to make customers aware of these products, and then to offer them a platform to compare and buy them with convenience.

Launched in 2008, PolicyBazaar offers a comparison of various insurance policies and loans based on price, quality and key benefits as well as helps consumers with analysis of financial products based on the same parameters. It boasts of over 20 million unique visitors each year and sales of over 20,000 policies per month.

In April last year, PolicyBazaar had raised $5 million in its third round of funding, led by Inventus Capital Partners. Existing investors Info Edge and Intel Capital also took part in this round. Info Edge had put in Rs 2.5 crore in that round, taking its total exposure to Rs 32.5 crore with 32 per cent stake in the firm.

PolicyBazaar recently appointed Naveen Kukreja as its financials group CMO and director of its non-insurance business. The firm also appointed Satkam Divya as its associate director.

This marks another investee of Info Edge to hit valuation benchmark. Last year Gurgaon-based Zomato Media Pvt Ltd (formerly DC Foodiebay Online Services Pvt Ltd), which owns the popular restaurant and event-listing and review site Zomato, raised a Rs 227.6 crore ($37 million) investment round led by Sequoia Capital. Existing investor and majority shareholder, Info Edge also participated in the round.

This deal valued Zomato at around Rs 1,000 crore or $158 million (back then).

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)