Amazon-backed digital insurance company Acko is now valued over a billion dollars

• The Series D round was led by General Atlantic and Multiples Private Equity.
• The company will use this funding to boost its health business with a $150 million investment.
• The company claims to have over 70 million customers.

Amazon-backed digital insurance company Acko has raised $255 million, at a valuation of $1.1 billion.

The Series D round was led by General Atlantic and Multiples Private Equity, along with the participation from Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and Lightspeed. Existing investors Intact Ventures and Munich Re Ventures have infused an undisclosed amount in this round.

The transaction is subject to approval by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), India’s insurance regulator. Barclays was the exclusive financial advisor to Acko on this fundraise.

Acko General insurance is the 34th unicorn of 2021. A unicorn, in a startup parlance, is company valued over $1 billion.

Founded by Varun Dua and Ruchi Deepak in 2016, Mumbai-based Acko is an independent digital general insurance company, which offers insurance products across motor, health, travel and more. Motor insurance is its largest offering, cofounder Deepak had told Business Insider in a previous interaction.

The company claims to have over 70 million customers, clocking a run-rate of nearly $150 million in premiums.

“We strongly believe in supporting our customers in protecting their valued assets or the health and safety of their loved ones via a differentiated product and value-added service. Insurance and protection must work for people based on their unique risks and needs in a seamless, reliable fashion,” Dua, chief executive officer (CEO) of Acko added.

Acko intends to use this funding to invest in their healthcare vertical and scale its team, particularly within technology, product and data science. The company intends to invest $150 million into its health business.

Prior to this, the company has raised $450 million to date from marquee investors like Amazon, Accel, Elevation, Accent Capital, Flipkart’s co-founder Binny Bansal and others.

Acko is the second insurtech startup to enter the unicorn club. Digit insurance crossed the billion dollar valuation mark in January 2021. Though IPO-bound PolicyBazaar is an insurtech player too, it is a seller of insurance policies and not a provider like the other two players.

PolicyBazaar will be launching its IPO on November 1, at a price band of ₹940-980. The lot size is set at 15 shares. The issue size of the IPO is ₹5,709 crore consisting of a fresh issue of ₹3,759 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of ₹1,959 crore by its existing shareholders.

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