BackPolicybazaar raises Rs500 crore from existing, new investors
At least three new investors, including True North and IDG Venture Partners, have come on board with this round of funding, says Policybazaar CEO Yashish Dahiya
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New Delhi: Online financial services portal Policybazaar, run by EtechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt. Ltd, has raised Rs500 crore, roughly $75 million, at a valuation of $500 million from new and existing investors, a top company official said.
At least three new investors including True North and IDG Venture Partners have come on board, chief executive Yashish Dahiya said.
He declined to name the third large investor in the round, citing a confidentiality agreement, but a person close to the development said it is Wellington Management Group, a Boston-based assets management firm.
Follow-on investors Temasek, Tiger Global Management and Premji Invest, along with a few others, participated in the round.
Mint reported in March that Policybazaar was in talks to raise a pre-IPO (initial public offering) round from new and existing investors. Till date the eight-year-old company has raised over Rs410 crore, largely from InfoEdge, Tiger Global and Premji Invest.
“We have just closed a Rs500 crore round at a valuation of half a billion dollars," Dahiya told Mint over the phone. “The primary reason for doing this was to invest heavily in customer service through technology, and also invest in the Paisa Bazaar business. We are also likely to enter mutual funds."
Policybazaar launched Paisa Bazaar in 2014. The new entity houses its loans and credit cards business while Policybazaar is for comparison and re-sale of insurance policies.
Dahiya said Paisa Bazaar has grown handsomely with traffic crossing that on Policybazaar. Paisa Bazaar is also contributing a significant part of the company’s revenue, which he expects will touch Rs400 crore by the end of the financial year ending March 2018.
In 2015-16, sales at Policybazaar grew 30% to Rs109 crore while losses widened 72% to Rs110 crore. The company has not filed its numbers for 2016-17 so far.
“We would broadly do about Rs400 crore in revenues this year, but what is interesting is that a lot of this is now coming from our loans and credit card business. Also, Paisa Bazaar has overtaken Policybazaar in terms of traffic," Dahiya said. Both the portals together clock 9 million visits every month.
The fresh funds will largely be invested across technology to streamline customer service, which is still managed largely through call centre functions. “We deal with about 40 different insurance companies and to give a uniform customer experience across all these companies is difficult and that is what we are trying to do. This funding will help us put that in place," Dahiya said.
Policybazaar also plans to launch mutual funds on its platforms, and is deliberating international expansion. Among other geographies, it will first launch in the Middle East region starting with Dubai, Dahiya said.
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