Temasek to buy part of Info Edge's stake in PolicyBazaar

Singapore government owned investment firm Temasek Holdings will acquire a part of Info Edge (India) Ltd's equity holding in online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar, which is owned by Gurgaon-based eTechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt Ltd, according to a stock market disclosure.

Info Edge recently transferred its entire shareholding in PolicyBazaar to its wholly-owned subsidiary MakeSense Technologies for Rs 101.3 crore. This was completed in two equal tranches.

As part of the deal, Temasek, through its Singapore-based indirect wholly-owned subsidiary MacRitchie Investments Pte Ltd, has agreed to acquire just under 50 per cent equity stake of MakeSense Technologies Ltd, for about Rs 134 crore (nearly $20.6 million).

Following this transaction, Info Edge owns 50.01 per cent stake in MakeSense, while MakeSense will hold about 19.65 per cent stake in PolicyBazaar.

The deal values PolicyBazaar at Rs 1,365 crore ($210 million).

Of the total funds, MakeSense will invest about Rs 31.1 crore in PolicyBazaar, while the remaining Rs 101.3 crore would be used by MakeSense to retire its payable to Info Edge, the statement said.

Started in 2008, PolicyBazaar offers comparison of various insurance policies and loans based on price, quality and key benefits, in addition to helping consumers with analysis of financial products based on the same parameters.

In May last year, PolicyBazaar.com had raised $20 million in its Series C round of funding from Tiger Global. Prior to that, the company had raised $5 million 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.

Info Edge also participated in the latest round of funding closed in April this year. PolicyBazaar raised $40 million (Rs 248 crore) in its Series D round of funding from PremjiInvest, the personal investment vehicle of Wipro chairman Azim Premji, among a set of existing and new investors.

For Temasek, this is the second such deal where it has invested in an Info Edge portfolio firm. Last month, it had led a $60 million round in Zomato in which the restaurant listing and review property's existing investor Vy Capital also participated. Till recently Zomato was a subsidiary of Info Edge.

Indeed, Temasek is an investor in Info Edge too.

Temasek has also invested in other internet ventures in India, including Just Dial and Snapdeal.