India-based online insurance policies marketplace PolicyBazaar has entered discussions with telecommunications and internet conglomerate SoftBank over an investment at a valuation of at least $800m, DealStreetAsia reported yesterday.
PolicyBazaar operates a life, health and car insurance policies aggregation platform where consumers can compare the prices, quality and benefits of each offering. It was launched by ETechAces, also the creator of credit card and loan comparison platform PaisaBazaar.
Yashish Dahiya, CEO and co-founder of PolicyBazaar, noted that if the SoftBank investment goes ahead, its local investors have committed to invest money in order to balance the stakes, as Indian regulations mandate that foreign equity in domestic companies cannot exceed 49%.
PolicyBazaar’s international investors include US-based hedge fund Tiger Global Management and Singapore state-owned investment firm Temasek, which between them already own approximately 48% of the company.
The investment would follow $77m in funding in an October 2017 round co-led by Wellington Management, True North and IDG Ventures that valued PolicyBazaar at $500m, and which included Temasek, Tiger Global and PremjiInvest.
Intel Capital, a subsidiary of chipmaker Intel, supplied an undisclosed amount of seed capital for the company in 2011 before returning for series A and B rounds in 2013 that raised a total of $9.6m.
Classified listings company Info Edge and Inventus Capital Partners also backed the 2013 rounds, and all PolicyBazaar’s existing investors contributed to a $20m series C round led by Tiger Global the following year.
PremjiInvest led the company’s $40m series D round in 2015, with participation from Tiger Global, Ribbit Capital, Steadview Capital and ABG Capital.