Shadine Taufik · · 1 min readInsuranceDekho acquires Sequoia-backed firm to bolster SME reach
Photo credit: InsuranceDekho
India’s MSME segment, which consists of 63 million enterprises and contributes nearly 30% of the country’s GDP, only sees insurance penetration hovering around 5%.
To address this issue and extend its MSME reach, InsuranceDekho has acquired Verak, a local SME-focused insurance distribution firm. Verak’s team will also be fully integrated into its parent company.
Despite being in operation for only 13 months, Verak said it has gained thousands of small shopkeepers and experienced a 30% month-on-month growth every month. Its investors include Sequoia and Lightspeed India Partners.
The development comes off the back of InsuranceDekho’s US$150 million series A fundraise in February, which was reportedly the largest round of its kind for an Indian insurtech firm.
Since being founded in 2016 by Ankit Agrawal and Ish Babbar, the insurance comparison firm has managed to cover 98% of all postal codes in India, and it claimed to “insure 10 Indians every minute.”
The company is part of auto unicorn CarDekho Group, which also operates sites such as BikeDekho.com, Gaadi.com, ZigWheels.com, and PowerDrift.com, among others.
See also: Terra, Celsius raise prospects for crypto insurance
Editing by Miguel Cordon and Dhania Putri Sarahtika
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