PolicyBazaar India’s Newest Unicorn After SoftBank Vision Fund, Info Edge Funding

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. SoftBank will invest $150 million and InfoEdge $50 million, Yashish Dahiya, co-founder and group chief executive officer of EtechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt Ltd., the parent of PolicyBazaar, told BloombergQuint. They will route the investment via Diphda Internet Services, a joint venture the two floated earlier this month. Another existing investor True North will pump in $6 million. After the transaction, SoftBank will hold less than 15 percent stake in the company.

“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,” Dahiya said in the statement.

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.