Turtlemint emerges from its shell seeking opportunities beyond insurance; bulks up for acquisitions

Insurtech company Turtlemint Insurance Services Pvt. Ltd is expanding its revenue streams beyond its core offerings, including through acquisitions much larger than its handful of purchases so far.

With Turtlemint maintaining its profitability, the company is now venturing into adjacent financial services such as mutual funds and loans. Turtlemint is also extending its enterprise services through Turtlefin, its software-as-a-service (Saas) business, including to banks, non-banking financial companies, and e-commerce firms.

“The natural extension is all financial products. Our core insurance business has scaled up, is profitable, and doing well. Now, we are focusing on building adjacencies,” Dhirendra Mahyavanshi, co-founder and chief executive of Turtlemint, told Mint.

Also read | Heat, floods and diseases: Will your health insurance premiums rise?

The company’s core insurance business currently accounts for 80-85% of its revenue. The remaining is generated from a variety of other financial products and services that the company is experimenting with.

Mahyavanshi emphasised that Turtlemint will also explore new adjacencies such as claims assistance packages, and insurance for small and medium enterprises. This, according to the co-founder, is an attempt to provide comprehensive financial solutions to the company’s customers.

While the core business is profitable, Turtlemint expects to achieve profitability in each of its emerging businesses in 2-3 years.

In 2022-23, the company recorded a total income of ₹157.2 crore, a 58% increase from ₹99.4 crore in FY22. Turtlemint also maintained profitability for a fourth consecutive fiscal year, with a profit after tax of ₹6.3 crore.

Also read | Unmasking the loopholes: How bank employees sell mutual funds without certification

Founded in 2015 by Mahyavanshi and Anand Prabhdesai, the company runs its core offerings through insurtech platform Turtlemint, a mutual fund advisory and financial planning services via Turtlemint Money, and Saas platform Turtlefin.

More M&As on the cards

Turtlemint is also actively hunting for acquisitions, primarily to enter into newer geographies like South-East Asia, Mahyavanshi said. So far, the company has a presence in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. 

The company has, to date, made four acquisitions including Pune-based data science startup IOPhysics Systems and insurtech company Last Decimal.

“Most of these acquisitions cost a few million dollars each, nothing very big. We are developing that muscle. It’s a high-risk strategy, and once we feel more confident… we can start doing big-ticket acquisitions with a comfortable space being around $50 million,” said Mahyavanshi.

In fact, Turtlemint has established a small M&A team that is actively reviewing proposals, having already assessed over a dozen opportunities so far.