PolicyBazaar raises Rs 500cr from Wellington Management and others

Online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar has raised Rs 500 crore in a new funding round led by global asset management firm Wellington Management, IDG Ventures India and private equity firm True North, as reported by Economic Times.

As the name suggests, PolicyBazaar is an online portal for life insurance and general insurance comparison. The company facilitates online purchase of insurance policy for those who are seeking both life insurance and non-life insurance.

PolicyBazaar was started in 2008 by IIT Delhi and IIT Ahmedabad alumni Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal, and Avaneesh Nirjar. The company has raised Rs 1000 crore (including the latest financing) to date. There have been no secondary exits as part of the new round. Follow-on investors such as Temasek, Tiger Global Management, Premji Invest and a few others also participated in the funding round.

"We are planning to invest in technology, customer service, and towards geographical expansion. The focus will continue to be on creating awareness about the importance of protection products, which we feel, will be the drivers of the insurance industry," Dahiya said.

Dahiya also spoke about future plans for potential public listing, but it is unclear whether the latest financing round is considered pre-IPO round. For Wellington Management, which has financed a number of Silicon Valley's most famous companies like Airbnb and Pinterest, the investment in PolicyBazaar would be its first in a privately-held technology company.