First online-only Acko gets huge backing

Acko General Insurance, India’s first online-only insurance company, has racked up USD30 million or INR200 crore in one of the largest ever seed funding rounds after it received an in-principle regulatory clearance to launch, recently.

Mumbai-based Acko is being backed by the likes of N.R Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder Infosys, Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock, Atul Nishar of Hexaware Technologies, venture funds Accel Partners and SAIF Partners.
Globally, a slew of well-funded insurtech ventures like Alibaba and Tencent-backed Chinese startup Zhong An valued at USD8 billion, which is slated for an IPO, and Trov and Lemonade in the US are disrupting the traditional insurers by focusing on younger consumers with customized and targeted products who largely transact digitally.

While the old guard of the insurance industry offers policies online, Acko is the first online-only insurance firm to begin operations here. Only three percent of insurance is bought online currently in India in an overall USD80 billion market but is likely to grow rapidly keeping in mind the young demographic accessing services online, states a Times of India report.

As per rules set up by the insurance regulator, no insurer carrying on the business of life insurance, general insurance or re-insurance can be registered unless the entity has a paid-up equity capital of INR100 crore.