Sunday, December 22

Online Insurance Startup Acko raises $12 Mn from Amazon

Acko Technology, an online insurance startup raised $12 million in a fresh round led by e-commerce giant Amazon India as informed by the company on Sunday.

The funding round witnessed participation from new investor Ashish Dhawan and existing investor Catamaran Ventures (Owned by Narayana Murthy).

The new infusion has taken Acko’s total equity funding to about $42 million with its valuation at about $100 million.

The round led by Amazon marks company debut in the financial sector where it will now co-create products with the insurance tech startup – besides being its distributor.

Acko-headquartered in Mumbai came to inception in 2016 as an independent entity post a restructuring at online insurance aggregator Coverfox, which witnessed its co-founded Varun Dua step down to kickstart the insurtech platform. It has raised $39 million in May 2017 as seed money from angel investors like SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Kris Gopalakrishnan.

Acko also has a partnership with Ola for providing trip insurance to the ride-hailing firm’s customers.

Amit Agarwal, SVP and country manager, Amazon India said,

Acko is a young and nimble startup bringing technology and data-led innovation to the insurance sector to deliver better 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.

Amazon has earlier invested Rs 144 crore in an online lending firm Capital Float, that had picked up a minority stake in financial service marketplace BankBazaar in 2015.