Acko is India’s fastest-growing digital general insurance company and has issued over 650 million policies to more than 60 million unique customers.
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Buying insurance need not be boring, cumbersome, non-transparent and unnecessarily pricey. It was precisely with these goals in mind that Ruchi Deepak and her former colleague Varun Dua launched their venture Acko General Insurance in November 2016.
Deepak and Dua’s background proved quite handy in the setting up of Acko and eventually getting the license in September 2017. While Deepak served in senior positions in the legal cells of Franklin Templeton Investments and Matrix Partners, Dua had worked with Tata AIG Life Insurance and Franklin Templeton before co-founding online insurance brokerage company Coverfox in 2013.
Says Deepak, “With Acko’s launch we moved one step closer to our objective: To offer a seamless digital insurance experience to customers and do away with all the pain points associated with traditional insurance.”
Today, Acko is India’s fastest-growing digital general insurance company and has issued over 650 million policies to more than 60 million unique customers. Acko is also a pioneer in the country of sachet insurance, bringing contextual micro insurance products to market with partnerships with 18-plus leading players in the internet ecosystem such as Amazon, Ola, Oyo, Goibibo-redbus, Urban Clap, Zomato, among others.
Charting Impressive Growth
Acko has been growing at more than 100 per cent year on year, with its annual revenues rising from Rs 60.2 crore in 2018-19 to Rs 195.6 crore in the fiscal ended March 31, 2021. Acko holds 8 per cent market share of all car insurance bought online in India and over 18 per cent market share of digitally transacting users in India.
Deepak is brimming with plans for the brand. “Acko is building infrastructure to offer a few ancillary services to insurance companies to improve customer experience / claims servicing. For example, we are building a network of mobile phone service centres to fulfil claims for mobile insurance. We are also offering a doorstep pick-up and drop of mobile phones / completing a car inspection before the issuance of car insurance. The field agents can receive a request for a car inspection through their mobile app and the inspection results are uploaded through the same app.”
“By aggregating demand across insurers, we can better optimise service levels and cost in turn bringing efficiencies to the insurers,” says Deepak. Acko already insures more than 2,00,000 lives across 50-plus companies under its group health insurance. They are set to launch a retail health insurance soon, with 30-plus companies including PineLabs, Makemytrip, Swiggy and Virtusa, among others, having already signed up.
On the issue of succession, Deepak says, “Our succession plan is already in place, for the company is replete with the right talent and leaders. We have people who will efficiently run Acko if the founders had to go. We have a strong Board as well. It is evident to us that the company is in safe hands, and therefore, we are not worried about succession at all.”