Frontier and Growth Markets | February 15, 2023

InsuranceDekho raises $150 million in debt and equity to expand insurance coverage in India

Jessica Pothering
ImpactAlpha Editor

Jessica Pothering

ImpactAlpha, February 15 – The pandemic ignited demand in India – and many other places – for health insurance products, making India one of world’s fastest-growing insurance markets. “What Covid has done for insurance distribution particularly in the health and life side, I don’t think any amount of government spending or marketing would have done,” InsuranceDekho’s Ankit Agrawal said in an interview.

InsuranceDekho has raised $150 million in a mix of debt and equity to help people in India’s smaller cities access affordable health, life, motor and business insurance. Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TVS Capital Funds led the equity portion of InsuranceDekho’s round. Impact investor LeapFrog Investments, which invested in CarDekho in 2021, also participated.

InsuranceDekho got its start in 2017 as a complement to CarDekho, an online car shopping site. InsuranceDekho reaches underserved populations in more than 1,300 towns through its online portal and by selling policies via mom-and-pop shops and part-time agents. The company says more than 80% of its policies are sold to customers in small cities and towns.

“We realized that in smaller cities you’ll have to go with an assistance model,” Agrawal explained.

The company is “protecting families from incidents which could contribute to them falling into poverty,” LeapFrog’s Stewart Langdon said.

He told ImpactAlpha that a key part of LeapFrog’s role as an investor is to help InsuranceDekho “make the business model ever more social inclusive, generating livelihoods and creating a new market of those who haven’t had insurance before.”

He added that it’s also a signal to other investors. “People know the emphasis we place on the customer’s experience and on the quality, relevance, and affordability of the products,” he said. “They know how keen we are to avoid the mistakes the insurance industry has made in the past when trying to serve the needs of emerging consumers in India.”