Deal Talk: Inventus sells Policybazaar stake; Lightbox may lead funding round in Cityflo

Inventus Capital Partners sold $25 million worth of stake in online insurance aggregator Policybazaar through a secondary transaction, Entrackr reported, citing sources.

The transaction for Gurugram-based Policybazaar comes after the company closed a $150 million funding deal with Chinese technology conglomerate Tencent at a valuation of $1.5 billion in September 2019. 

According to the report, Inventus Capital has divested 1.67% of Etechaces Marketing and Consulting, which owns Policybazaar and Paisabazaar via a secondary transaction.

Inventus had earlier led a $5 million Series B round in Policybazaar in 2013 and the current deal had materialised in the second half of last month. 

A Times of India report, which was published in July 2019, said that New York’s Tiger Global Management was looking to exit PolicyBazaar through an investment from SoftBank and Tencent. However, it’s not clear if the two picked up Tiger Global’s stake in the firm.

Cityflo in talks with Lightbox for funding

Mumbai-headquared intra-city bus commute startup Cityflo is in talks with venture capital firm Lightbox to raise funding, Mint reported, citing sources.

According to the report, the talks are at an advanced stage and it could see Lightbox lead the funding round of about $7-8 million.

Cityflo, operated by Komorebi Tech Solutions, was founded in 2015. It runs air-conditioned buses in Mumbai for office-goers and targets densely-populated residential and commercial areas. The company was founded by IIT graduates Jerin Venad, Rushabh Shah, Ankit Agrawal and Sankalp Kelshikar. Its investors include venture capital firms Chiratae Ventures and India Quotient. 

It has raised a total of $750,000 so far, according to Crunchbase data.

With the upcoming funding, the company plans to expand its service frequency and fleet size, and set up in other cities.