Google executive Vishwanath Ramarao joins insurance provider Acko to head technology and products

Digital general insurance provider Acko has appointed former Google engineering executive Vishwanath Ramarao to head technology and products at the firm.

Ramarao will lead the Bengaluru-based startup's technology strategy, product development and design. He will be responsible for the engineering, data science, product and design teams, a company statement said on Thursday.

“Given the exciting roadmap ahead, our immediate focus is to scale up and continue improving our customers’ experience by investing in our team and technology. Having Vish on board underlines this focus: hiring the best talent and building technology driven solutions to deliver innovative and personalised insurance experience for all,” Ruchi Deepak, co-founder at Acko, said.

“I’m looking forward to joining the insurtech movement and working with Acko to change the way insurance products are built and sold,” Ramarao said. 

Apart from Google, Ramarao has worked in various capacities at Hike Messenger, AOL, Yahoo and Wipro.

At Kavin Mittal’s cross platform instant messenger Hike, Ramarao was the chief technology officer, responsible for building and growing the data science practice from scratch. At internet company AOL, as the vice president of engineering, he rebuilt and launched its communication and media technology suites.

Founded in 2016 by Varun Dua, Acko provides insurance policy products with personalised pricing based on customer behaviour and data analytics through its digital platform. 

Read: Acko’s Varun Dua on disrupting the insurance market with technology and innovation

A heavily-funded player in the space, it has raised a total of $107 million in funding till date from ecommerce platform Amazon, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal, and venture capital firms including Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, venture capital company Accel, SAIF Partners, RPS Ventures and Intact Ventures.

The startup last made its leadership hires in July last year, when it made a number of appointments across departments including human resources, marketing, partnerships and operations.