Digital insurance firm Acko files case against former employees for alleged IP theft

Digital general insurance provider Acko Technology has filed a complaint with the Bengaluru police against two former employees, alleging theft of confidential information.

Acko has also alleged that the former staffers used the stolen information to set up a competing business, Onsurity Services.

The Amazon-backed company has said that Yogesh Agarwal, one of the accused, was an ex-employee of Acko Group and was working on various projects. The other accused Kulin Shah joined Acko Group as vice president in August 2017.

Bengaluru Cyber Crime Police Station filed an FIR (first information report) on May 8, 2020 under Section 66 and 72 of the Information Technology Act, and Sections 403, 406, 408, 426, 120B and 34 of the Indian Penal Code.

TechCircle has verified and reviewed a copy of the FIR.

When contacted by TechCircle, Acko declined to comment on the matter.

“Yogesh and Kulin in collusion with Yogesh’s parents…have stolen the confidential information of Acko Group entrusted to them during their term of engagement and employment. Further, using the same to set up a competitive business under the names Onsurity Services Pvt Ltd incorporated on 15.05.2019 and Onsurity Tech Pvt Ltd incorporated on 05.02.2020,” the FIR stated.

According to the FIR, Shah downloaded confidential information during his notice period in February and erased the operating system on his office laptop to hide the activity.

Both Agarwal and Shah could not be contacted immediately to get a comment.

Onsurity, the company founded by Agarwal and Shah, raised Rs 17.5 crore ($2.3 million) in a seed funding round from Nexus Venture Partners on March 20, 2020. The company operates in the insurance-tech space and offers solutions for mobile screen damage protection and a wellness programme for enterprises.

Acko, founded by Varun Dua in 2016, provides insurance policy products with personalised pricing based on customer behaviour and data analytics through its digital platform. A heavily-funded player in the space, it has raised a total of $107 million in funding so far from venture capital firms including Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, Accel, SAIF Partners, RPS Ventures and Intact Ventures, apart from entities such as e-commerce giant Amazon, Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal. 

Last month, the company was in news for laying off 45 employees and cutting leadership salaries.