Acko gets final licence from IRDA, plans to kick-start operations by December
The company will target young audience who are comfortable with online transactions.
Moneycontrol News
Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) has approved the R3 application and granted certificate of registration to Acko General Insurance, which will be the country's first online general insurance company. The insurer is looking to start operations by December 2017.
“We are now ready to operate in the general insurance space, we will initially start with four branches. We are looking to start operations by December 2017, by selling multiple products through online channel," Varun Dua, Founder, Acko General Insurance said.
Dua said that they are looking at the younger audience within the age bracket of 25- 45 years, who are net savvy, own a smartphone or a device with an internet connection, have a genuine need for buying some kind of insurance product and are at ease while doing transactions online.
Acko is Dua’s second venture in online insurance segment after Coverfox. It will provide personalised products after measuring customer behaviour using data analytics. It had filed its application for a licence with IRDAI in November 2016.
Recently, Acko raised seed round of USD 30 million. The investment is backed by Narayana Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures, Venk Krishnan and Subba Rao of NuVentures, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock, Atul Nishar – Founder and Chairman of Hexaware Technologies, Rajeev Gupta, veteran investment banker and Founder of Arpwood Capital, Accel and SAIF Partners.
Acko will operate as an independent general insurance company with its entire operations offered through the digital platform. It will create products and deliver opportunities in areas where there are gaps such as personalised insurance products based on user consumption behaviour.
These include premium amounts or recommendations for a mix of products that are best suited for their requirement, and will handhold them during the difficult claims process.
