Exclusive: PolicyBazaar rejigs cap table with a $45 mn round at $2.4 bn valuation

Mumbai: Online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar has executed yet another secondary share sale worth about $45 million, in which private equity firm True North and some angel and individual investors sold their stakes, people close to the matter told The Economic Times.

The transaction values the company at about $2.4 billion, the people said.

Bay Capital, IIFL Wealth, White Oak Global Advisors and Cyrus Poonawalla Group are among the incoming investors in PolicyBazaar’s parent entity ETechAces Marketing and Consulting, which also operates online lending marketplace PaisaBazaar.


The transaction follows another secondary deal of about $20 million by existing backer True North at a $2 billion valuation, which ET was the first to report on November 23. At the time, Alpha Wave Incubation, an early-stage fund managed by Falcon Edge and anchored by ADQ, a holding company owned by the Abu Dhabi government, came on board in a mix of secondary and primary capital. Prior to that, SoftBank Vision Fund, another existing backer, bought stakes from older investors, including Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital and Inventus Capital.

“The company is expecting a valuation of around $3.5 billion for its planned IPO,” said another person with direct knowledge of the development.

True North, formerly known as India Value Fund, said in October last year that it had partially exited PolicyBazaar, without divulging any financial details. Prior to the stake sale, True North held a 3.31% stake in the company through Fund V and 2.48% through Fund VI.

Some of the other investors in PolicyBazaar are Info Edge (India), PremjiInvest, Temasek Holdings, Steadview Capital, Chiratae Ventures and Wellington Management.

Investment banks Kotak Mahindra Capital Co. Ltd., ICICI Securities Ltd., Morgan Stanley and Citigroup Capital Markets are in the fray to bag the IPO mandate for the company, sources said.

Yashish Dahiya, co-founder and group chief executive officer of PolicyBazaar, and IIFL Wealth declined to comment for this story. True North, White Oak, Bay Capital and Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India, the flagship company of the Cyrus Poonawalla Group, did not respond to emailed queries as of publishing this article.

In November, Dahiya had told ET that United Arab Emirates (UAE) was among the top geographies where PolicyBazaar was looking to significantly ramp up operations. “We are keen on international expansion, and homegrown Indian companies must test international areas as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India). It’s great our companies get to a stage where they can help customers abroad…,” he had said.

Dahiya expected the company to clock Rs 1,100 crore in revenue and post a marginal profit during financial year 2020-21.

Founded in 2008 by Dahiya, Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar, PolicyBazaar also operates an online lending marketplace PaisaBazaar. Its prominent product categories include pure-term, investment-linked, health and auto insurance. The company claims it conducts one million transactions a month, accounting for nearly 25% of India’s life cover, and more than 7% of India’s retail health business.