Participated · Equity · May 2011

Policybazaar is an Indian online insurance platform and aggregator that allows users to compare and buy policies across life, health, travel, auto and property categories from dozens of insurers. The company also sells loans, credit cards and mutual funds and reports selling over a million policies a month. Bernstein analysts estimate Policybazaar commands about 90% share of the online insurance distribution market in India. The 12-year-old startup has raised about $630 million to date and recently secured a new $75 million tranche. Policybazaar is working toward an initial public offering slated for next year. It says it will use the fresh funding to expand its presence across the UAE and the broader Middle East/GCC region. PolicyBazaar, founded in 2008 by Yashish Dahiya and Alok Bansal, operates an online marketplace for insurance policies and other financial products and also runs lending marketplace PaisaBazaar. The platform helps consumers select schemes based on analysis of product features, price and benefits. The group has expanded into BFSI-focused services, including a technology venture called Zphin. PolicyBazaar has attracted large strategic investors such as SoftBank, Info Edge, True North, Tencent, Intel Capital, Steadview Capital, ABG Capital and Ribbit Capital. Company leadership changed in February when Sarbvir Singh replaced Dahiya as CEO and Dahiya moved to a broader group CEO role. Co‑founder Yashish Dahiya has publicly said the SoftBank investment led the company to run at a loss and called that strategy “misguided.” Recent secondary transactions and capital inflows have included stake sales by early backer Inventus and a reported but unfiled $80M secondary infusion. EtechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt Ltd is the parent company of the PolicyBazaar and PaisaBazaar portals. According to company filings sourced by paper.vc, it secured about $152 million (Rs 1,059.4 crore) in the first tranche of a Series F funding round. The tranche was led by Japan’s SoftBank Vision Fund. The disclosure comes from filings with the Registrar of Companies. The report focuses on this Series F first tranche and does not provide additional operating metrics, past rounds, or future plans. PolicyBazaar operates a digital insurance marketplace and its own insurance brand, and also runs a lending marketplace called PaisaBazaar.com. Founded in 2008, the company began as an information portal for insurance and has expanded into transactions and product distribution. PolicyBazaar processes about 100 million website visitors per year and has a transaction volume approaching 300,000 per month. The company estimates it is used to purchase over 20% of life insurance coverage in India and roughly 7% of the country’s retail health coverage. PolicyBazaar is targeting 10 million transacting customers by 2020 and plans to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 80%. A recent financing round (described below) increases the company’s funding to nearly $350 million to date. PolicyBazaar.com (run by eTechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt Ltd) operates an online comparison platform for insurance policies and loans, focusing on price, quality and key benefits. The company emphasizes simple, consumer‑centric products and works with insurers to improve their consumer e‑commerce platforms and lower acquisition costs. PolicyBazaar reports about 70 lakh unique registered users, roughly 1.5 lakh buyers, and monthly transactions in the 10,000–20,000 range (up from ~3,000 the prior year), rising to ~25,000 in peak seasons. The majority of the latest investment is earmarked for strengthening the brand, enhancing the platform and improving customer services. Management says the organisation is witnessing robust traction and aims for profitability sometime this year, while an IPO is expected 2–4 years out. The company has raised multiple institutional rounds to scale and develop the business.