Auto Insurance Aggregator RenewBuy Raises $9.2 Mn From Amicus Capital Partners

Gurugram-headquartered auto insurance aggregator RenewBuy has raised $9.2 Mn (INR 60 Cr) from Bengaluru-based growth-stage PE firm, Amicus Capital Partners. The investment is part of Amicus Capital’s maiden private equity fund which made its first close at $200 Mn in December 2016.

As per reports, Zanskar Advisors served as the financial advisor for the transaction, which was finalised last week. With the newly-raised capital, RenewBuy is looking to expand its portfolio of services to include health, accident and life insurance.

Commenting on the development, Amicus Capital co-founder Mahesh Parasuraman stated, “We are highly impressed with RenewBuy’s differentiated and capital efficient approach to finding a unique digital solution for insurance distribution. We are delighted to make a significant investment into RenewBuy, which is poised for exponential growth.”

How RenewBuy Is Working To Simplify Auto Insurance

Owned and operated by D2C Consulting, RenewBuy is a motor insurance startup that was founded by Indraneel Chatterjee and Balachander Sekhar. The company launched its operations in April 2016. With its proprietary technology, the platform’s algorithm helps customers find the lowest quotes from insurance providers, thereby saving up to 60% on their renewal premium.

Additionally, the startup offers other solutions for car and bike owners such as instant policy in less than two minutes, free reminder service, digital locker for all documents, servicing, and claim assistance. It has tie-ups with insurers including Bajaj Allianz, HDFC ERGO, Bharti AXA, Reliance General and IFFCO Tokio, among others.

As claimed by Sekhar, RenewBuy has crossed the $15.4 Mn (INR 100 Cr) mark in terms of annualised insurance premiums. It currently boasts more than 7,000 insurance agents on its platform.

Speaking about the newly-secured funding, co-founder and CEO Balachander Sekhar said, “Given the size of the market, we see huge scope for continued growth and it was important to partner with a strong institutional partner like Amicus Capital who understands our category space and shares the same vision on how to grow the business.”

He added, “RenewBuy’s unique digital agent model has delivered a sharp month-on-month growth in the last two years to become one of the leading digital insurance aggregators.”

In April 2016, the auto insurance startup raised $1 Mn in an angel round led by Mount Nathan Advisors, a Singapore-based principal investment and advisory firm. At the time, it was reported that the funding would be spent on developing its product & technology platform and test market various initiatives.

Amicus Capital Partners: 2015 To Present

Amicus Capital is a growth-stage investment firm established by former Carlyle India Managing Director Mahesh Parasuraman and Sunil Theckath Vasudevan in March 2015. The firm floated its maiden investment vehicle last year, when it made the first close at $90 Mn.

With a target corpus of $200 Mn, the private equity fund is looking to make its final close by the end of 2017.

According to Parasuraman, the fund will be used to back promising startups across a number of sectors such as consumer technology, financial services and healthcare, in exchange for minority stakes of around 20% to 49%.

The Growing Market For Online Insurance In India

In the online insurance segment, RenewBuy competes against an army of emerging players, including Coverfox, PolicyBazaar, Easypolicy, Turtlemint, and BankBazaar, among others.  In February 2017, Times Internet launched an online insurance distribution platform ETInsure.

In May, Acko General Insurance secured $30 Mn in a Seed round of funding. The investors included Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures; Venk Krishnan and Subba Rao of NuVentures; Kris Gopalakrishnan; Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock and Atul Nishar – founder & Chairman of Hexaware Technologies.

In June, Mumbai-based online insurance brokerage platform Coverfox reportedly raised about $15 Mn (INR 96 Cr) in Series C round of funding. The round was led by US insurer Transamerica, along with the participation of existing investors.

Most recently, in October, global asset management firm Wellington Management led a $77 Mn funding round in online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar. The round also saw participation from IDG Ventures India and PE firm True North.

With the latest investment from Amicus Capital Partners, RenewBuy looks to bolster its presence in the fast-growing online insurance market by expanding beyond auto insurance and branching out into health, life as well as accident insurance.

(The development was reported by ET)