Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures Invests In Online Insurance Platform, Coverfox

Mumbai-based, online insurance distribution platform Coverfox.com has received an undisclosed amount in funding from NR. Narayan Murthy’s private investment firm, Catamaran Ventures.

The funding is an addition to the earlier round in which Coverfox had raised $2 Mn in series A round followed by $12 Mn round from Accel US, Accel India and SAIF partners.

The startup will use the funding to strengthen and grow its online insurance comparison and sales business.

The portal aims to be the largest online auto insurance provider within next six months. It also expects its web traffic to double and reach 1 Mn visitors per month by the end of this year.

Glibberbug Technologies, which runs Coverfox.com, was established in 2013 by IIT-Bombay alumni Devendra Rane and Varun Dua. It was started as a venture to build technology for insurance firms, however, the company pivoted and started selling insurance online under the brand name Coverfox.

Coverfox has developed proprietary technology based comparison and sales platform, insurance domain expertise and after sales support. It offers insurance across categories like car, bike, health, travel and home insurance.

Some Facts:

• Since last year the company has witnessed 500 per cent growth
• Coverfox registers an overall growth of 40-50 percent month on month basis
• Insurance in auto segment contributes most in growth
• Coverfox is also a TechSparks 2014 company

Varun Dua, CEO & Co-founder of Coverfox, said, “Insurance in India is a largely under-penetrated market (3.9 percent as against the world average of 6.3 percent). The industry is at the helm to witnessing a shift from being a seller’s market to a buyer’s market. We aim to spearhead this change and make insurance an online activity along with making it straightforward, simple, quick and transparent for everyone.”

According to a report by Boston Consulting Group and Google India, three in every four insurance policies sold by 2020 would be influenced by digital channels at either pre-purchase stage, purchase or renewal stages. And insurance sales from online channels will touch INR 15,000 Cr by 2020, with overall Internet influenced sales at INR 300,000-400,000 Cr.

Coverfox biggest competitor is Gurgaon-based-eTechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt Ltd which runs and operate online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar. PolicyBazaar has raised close to $69.6 Mn funding altogether with $40 Mn Series D round in April this year.

Founder and former chairman of Infosys, NR Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures has backed dozen of companies including Innoviti Payment Solutions, Hector Beverages and Wellspring Healthcare.

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