Amazon likely to disrupt insurance industry in India

Online retail and e-commerce organisation Amazon could be close to finalising its investment in insurtech start-up Acko.

Acko wants to disrupt India’s insurance industry through a digital-only platform, having raised USD30 million and recently received in-principal approval from the financial market regulators in India.

Amazon and rival Flipkart had both been pursuing investing in Acko, it has been reported widely, but at this stage it is now thought that Amazon is close to signing a term-sheet for the investment and a partnership deal with Acko.

It’s said that the arrangement will see Amazon acting as an online distributor for Acko’s insurance products, selling a range of financial products.

Now it appears Amazon is close to investing in and partnering with an insurtech start-up, in order to gain the ability to add insurance products to its retail offering, seeing the firm stepping into the sale of financial products for the first time.

It’s also been reported that Flipkart is readying its own entry into insurance sales online, with the establishment of a new entity to focus on financial services and venture investing.