AAA Tencent takes funding to ETechAces at $1.5bn valuation

Tencent takes funding to ETechAces at $1.5bn valuation

ETechAces, an India-based operator of insurance and financial comparison platforms, has raised between $130m and $150m from internet group Tencent at a valuation of about $1.5bn, Entrackr reported on Saturday.

Sources told the news publication that the deal was closed about a month ago, after Tencent and ETechAces had negotiated the details for more than three months. Yashish Dahiya, co-founder and chief executive of ETechAces, has denied the transaction took place while Tencent has not commented.

Founded in 2008, ETechAces has built two online services – PolicyBazaar and PaisaBazaar – that respectively allow consumers to compare and buy insurance policies, and loans and investment products.

Telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank’s Vision Fund led a $152m series F round for ETechAces in May 2019, with participation from classified listings operator Info Edge’s Diphda Internet Services subsidiary as well as True North and Startup Holding.

The $152m was reported as an initial close at the time, though it is unclear whether Tencent’s commitment formed part of the round.

ETechAces had previously collected $238m in a June 2018 round then also described as a series F which was led by SoftBank Vision Fund with contributions from Info Edge and True North.

Info Edge and Singaporean state-owned investment firm Temasek were revealed the following month to have made a $27.7m investment in the company, but ETechAces did not disclose whether that sum in fact formed part of the June close.

Info Edge has been a shareholder since seed stage, when it provided an undisclosed amount of funding, before returning for a $5m series B round in 2013 that included chipmaker Intel’s corporate venture capital unit, Intel Capital, and Inventus Capital Partners.

Tiger Global Management joined existing shareholders for a $20m series C round in 2014, before the hedge fund manager backed a $40m series D round in 2015 together with Ribbit Capital, Steadview Capital, PremjiInvest and ABG Capital.

Temasek reportedly purchased $17.6m worth of shares from Intel Capital in late 2014 and subsequently contributed to a $77m series E round in 2017 that also featured True North, Tiger Global, PremiInvest, Wellington Management and Chiratae Ventures (then known as IDG Ventures India).

By Thierry Heles

Thierry Heles is editor-at-large of Global University Venturing and Global Corporate Venturing, and host of the Beyond the Breakthrough podcast.

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