Another e-commerce startup becomes unicorn: Policybazaar raises over $200 million, plans IPO, says report

The homegrown online insurance aggregator Policybazaar has raised over $200 million in a fresh investment. (Reuters)

The homegrown online insurance aggregator Policybazaar has raised over $200 million in a fresh investment round led by Softbank Vision Fund, Reuters reported. The new funding values the Gurugram-based insurance startup at over $1 billion, ET Now reported. PolicyBazaar will apply for initial public offering (IPO) soon, the ET Now report said. Amid the digital financial sector riding a bull wave last year, Policybazaar recorded Rs 1,800 crore in premium in 2017.

Policybazaar is an online platform that helps consumers compare and analyse insurance products. The company expected to ring in Rs 35 crore in profits by 2018, aiding its prospects to successfully go public, the media reports had said last year. Policybazaar set its eyes on Rs 2,000 crore turnover by the end of the fiscal year 2017-18.

#RiseWithIndia | India gets yet another unicorn after @swiggy_in last week. @policybazaar raises more than $200 million in new investment round led by @SoftBank Vision Fund@chandrarsrikant pic.twitter.com/qHQPhBPCG8

— ET NOW (@ETNOWlive) June 25, 2018

The Indian lending marketplace has the backing of high-profile investors including InfoEdge (Naukri.com), Inventus Capital, Tiger Global Management, Steadview Capital, Premji Invest, Temasek and Ribbit Capital. The portal, which was launched nearly eight years back, controls more than 90 percent of the online insurance comparison market in India.

Meanwhile, earlier this month, Policybazaar launched a consumer awareness campaign, NiveshKarBefikar to help people understand what the new-age Unit-linked Insurance Plans (Ulips) are all about and the role it can play in their long-term financial planning. The NiveshKarBefikar campaign aims to dispel myths surrounding the product, by producing 2,000 minutes of high-quality content through a series of conversations where industry leaders come in and share their views on why the fourth generation version of Ulip is probably one of the best long-term investment-cum-insurance products existing in the country.