Insurance aggregator Policybazaar expects to return to profitability this fiscal on the back of a surge in demand for insurance products amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Growth over the last year is between 70 per cent and 100 per cent depending on the insurance product, Policybazaar.com Group CEO and co-founder Yashish Dahiya told PTI.
"This year we should be profitable. We were profitable in FY18 while FY19 and FY20 we were not quite profitable. So this (growth in business) will help us to become profitable from this year onwards, " he said.
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Due to the loss posted by Policybazaar in the last two financial years, fund infusion by investment major SoftBank during the last round came under scrutiny.
"I don't know about what others have to say, but the SoftBank team has been the most mature and consistent investor we have on our capital table. Munish's first investment was us, then Firstcry, followed by Delhivery and Lenskart. All of them are highly regarded for being capital efficient, " he said.
He further said the company will look to consolidate its operations, invest in customer service and work towards capital efficiency as it eyes swinging back into profitability this fiscal.
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Despite booking a loss, the company's revenue jumped three-fold while it doubled both market share and valuation at the end FY20, he added.
On the insurance premium side, he said the current fiscal will close with Rs 6, 000 crore as against Rs 4, 000 crore in FY20.
As far as the other business Paisabazar is concerned, he said there is some stress on that side as demand for loans has come down significantly due to the Covid-19 crisis.
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The new equity financing round has also seen participation from a number of PolicyBazaar's existing investors, that includes, Tiger Global Management, PremjiInvest and Temasek.
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NEW DELHI: EtechAces Marketing and Consulting, which owns and operates online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar, has closed its latest round of fund raising, which has been led by global asset management firm Wellington Management, private equity firm True North and IDG Ventures India.
The closure of the round, which was first reported by ET in its edition dated July 6th, values the Gurgaon-based company at about $500 million, according to sources briefed on the matter. This, however, could not be independently verified by ET.
The new equity financing round has also seen participation from a number of PolicyBazaar's existing investors, that includes, investment firm Tiger Global Management, PremjiInvest and Temasek, the government of Singapore-owned investment company, among others.
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Including the latest round, the company, which was founded in 2008 by IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad alum Yashish Dahiya, has, till date, raised about Rs 1, 000 crore. There have been no secondary exits as part of the new round.
EtechAces also owns and operates loans and credit cards marketplace PaisaBazaar. The proceeds from the latest round is expected to finance PolicyBazaar's expansion into international markets, beginning with the Middle East, by the end of the current calendar year.
"We are planning to invest in technology, customer service, and towards geographical expansion. The focus will continue to be on creating awareness about the importance of protection products, which we feel, will be the drivers of the insurance industry, " Dahiya said.
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The CEO has also spoken about plans of a potential public listing, but it is yet unclear whether the latest round of equity financing is being considered as a pre-IPO round, or even if the company has firmed up plans for a public market debut.
In an earlier conversation with ET, Dahiya had said that the company had broken even in the financial year 2016-17, with a total revenue of Rs 220 crore, up from Rs 109 crore in 2015-16. The CEO had forecast that PolicyBazaar is expected to be profitable from the current fiscal.
For Wellington Management, which manages assets of about $1 trillion, and has backed a number of Silicon Valley's most valued companies like Airbnb and Pinterest, the investment in PolicyBazaar is expected to be its first in a privately-held technology company that has emerged from Asia’s third-largest economy.
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India’s still-nascent online insurance segment has continued to be a happy hunting ground for global investors. In June, ET reported that Glitterbug Technologies, which owns and operates online insurance brokerage Coverfox, had raised about Rs 96 crore ($15 million) in its series-C round, led by US insurer Transamerica, with its existing investors also participating.
Separately, Unilazer Ventures, the investment firm set up by former media czar Ronnie Screwvala ramped up its stake in online insurance policy aggregator EasyPolicy in June, picking up a majority position in the Noida-based venture in the process.
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