Acko raises $12 million in funding round led by Amazon

The latest infusion takes Acko’s total equity funding to nearly $42mn.
Acko raises $12 million in funding round led by Amazon
Acko raises $12 million in funding round led by Amazon
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Amazon India is out to expand its presence in India in multiple verticals and its latest decision to invest $12 million in insurance vertical Acko, which holds a license to issue policies in the non-life categories.

This is not the first such investment by Amazon in the Indian fin-tech startups, though it is the first insurance company it has picked up to invest in. It invested Rs 144 crore in Capital Float, an online lending portal and picked up a minority stake in BankBazaar.

Acko Technologies is the parent company that operates the Acko General Insurance business online and uses the latest technology to process applications for insurance policies online and issues them to individuals and businesses. As indicated already the company operates in the non-life insurance space.

“Acko is a young and nimble start-up bringing technology and data-led innovation to the insurance sector to deliver a better insurance experience for customers. We are excited to back companies that are focused on using technology for enhanced customer experience and are led by missionary founders and management teams. We look forward to be a part of their growth journey”, said Amit Agarwal, SVP and Country Manager, Amazon India, in a statement.

With the infusion of this $12 million funding from Amazon, the company would have raised a total of $42 million so far. The previous $30 million came in the form of seed capital and the investors on that occasion included Catamarans, the investment firm floated by NR Narayana Murthy of Infosys, another Infosys hand Kris Gopalakrishnan, Hemendra Kothari of DSP BlackRock, Atul Nishar of Hexaware and SAIF Partners and Accel India. Rajeev Gupta of Arpwood also invested.

There is some amount of synergy in Amazon’s moves in this sector since the online retailers are able to offer a more comprehensive service to their customers if they can include a financing option and also an insurance cover on specific products. It is not surprising to learn, therefore, that even Flipkart showed interest in making an investment in Acko.

The founder of Acko, Varun Dua, already runs another insurance site, CoverFox, which does aggregation of polices and many of the making investments in Acko have made investments in CoverFox as well.

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