Online insurance startup PolicyBazaar is raising over $200 million in a fresh funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund.
The valuation of the company now stands at $1 billion, a person familiar with the matter told BloombergQuint requesting anonymity. PolicyBazaar, founded in 2008, is the second unicorn among online financial services and fintech startups after Paytm.
Existing investors including Info Edge (India) Ltd. also participated, PolicyBazaar said in a statement. It didn’t give other details. BloombergQuint’s emailed queries to the company remained unanswered.
“SoftBank’s culture of backing disruptive businesses and industry leaders with long-term capital investment gels well with our own values and vision of creating a transparent and empowering financial products marketplace,” Yashish Dahiya, chief executive officer and co-founder of PolicyBazaar, said in the statement.
InfoEdge, in an exchange filing, said it signed an agreement with SoftBank to jointly invest $90 million in Etechaces Marketing and Consulting, the parent of PolicyBazaar, for an 8.93 percent stake on a fully diluted basis. The investment will be routed through its subsidiary Diphda Internet Services floated earlier this month.
As per the agreement, SoftBank will invest $45 million into the subsidiary for a 49.99 percent stake while InfoEdge will invest a similar amount for the remaining 50.01 percent. The investment in PolicyBazaar is subject to regulatory and other approvals.
PolicyBazaar competes with the likes of Sequoia Capital-backed BankBazaar and Coverfox. The firm had last raised Rs 500 crore, or about $75 million, at a valuation of half-a-billion dollars from new and existing investors in October.
PolicyBazaar, based in Gurgaon, said it hosts over 100 million visitors yearly and has nearly 300,000 transactions a month.
