Acko Wrapping Up $120 Mn Secondary Deal; Arpwood Capital, Others Likely To Join

Insurtech company Acko is reportedly in talks to close a $100 Mn to $120 Mn secondary deal, which will see a few of its early investors selling their stake.

The early backers selling their stake includes Narayana Murthy-owned venture capital firm Catamaran Ventures and Ashish Dhawan, founder of private equity fund Chrys Capital, the ET reported.

Acko, which was last valued at $1.4 Bn resulting from its last fundraise, is executing the secondary transaction at 5-10% discount, the report cited sources as saying.

Inc42 has reached out to Acko for comments on the development. The story will be updated based on the response.

Sources also said that the investors coming on board are Arpwood Capital, Enam group’s family office, Mithun Sacheti founder of CaratLane, and MK Ventures’ Madhusudan Kela.

Existing shareholder of the company, US-based investor firm General Atlantic, will strengthen its position in the company by acquiring additional stake, sources added.

Founded in 2016 by Ruchi Deepak and Varun Dua, has so far raised more than $450 Mn in total funding from investors, including Amazon, General Atlantic and Multiples Private Equity. 

The insurtech unicorn that offers insurance for vehicles and travel, recently expanded its services to health through the acquisition of OneCare, in July.

Also, the Bengaluru-based startup rolled out Acko flexi term life insurance plan to extend flexible coverage, allowing policyholders to adjust the amount as financial responsibilities change, in September.

This comes at a time when the wave of secondary deals in the first half of the year saw beyond a dozen such deals, which gave early investors exits from the likes of Capillary, ixigo, Urban Company, Porter, and Pocket FM, among other startups, where most of these deal occurred at a discount.

Some of the investor firms such as Peak XV and 360 ONE Asset have set aside funds to eye secondary transactions or late-stage investments in startup ventures.

The company claims to have distributed insurance policies to over 78 Mn unique customers and issued more than 1 Bn policies to date. Recently, the company entered the car repair and service space by launching ‘Acko Drive Service Centre’.

In FY23, the startup reported a net loss of INR 738.5 Cr, up 53% year-on-year, while its operating revenue grew 32% to INR 1,758.6 Cr.

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