According to media reports, the national markets watchdog Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has provided the green light to PB Fintech, which started insurance tech platform Policy Bazaar, to glide its maiden public issue.
The Rs 6,017.5-crore initial public offering (IPO) will constitute a new issue of shares worth Rs 3,750 crore and a proposal for sale of Rs 2,267.5 crore. The offer for sale consists of Rs 1,875 crore worth of shares by investor SVF Python II (Cayman) and Rs 392.5 crores by other selling shareholders.
Kotak Mahindra Capital Company and Morgan Stanley India Company are the global coordinators and one of the book-running head managers to the issue. Citigroup Global Markets India, ICICI Securities, HDFC Bank, IIFL Securities and Jefferies India are also book-running lead managers to the offer, as per the draft red herring prospectus (DRHP).
The company will use the proceeds of IPO for heightening visibility and awareness of brands, including but not restricted to Policybazaar and Paisabazaar (Rs 1,500 crore), new opportunities to increase consumer base, including offline appearance (Rs 375 crore), strategic investments and acquisitions (Rs 600 crore), expanding presence outside India (Rs 375 crore), and general corporate purposes.
As per Frost and Sullivan’s report, PB Fintech is the largest online Indian insurance firm with attractive and affordable insurance and lending products and services. The startup has reached the highest level in the Indian market due to the effective use of the power of technology, data, and innovation.
Policybazaar, the central platform of PB Fintech, was launched in 2008 to aware customers of different insurance products. The platform showed massive growth due to transparency, more choices, neutral offerings, and customized products in the insurance sector. A few days back, the fintech startup also announced that it has got IRDAI approval to operate as an insurance broker.
The fiscal year 2020 report revealed that Policybazaar had a 93.4 percent digital insurance market share based on several policies sold. Policybazaar, India’s largest digital insurance marketplace, also transacted 65.3 percent of all digital insurance sales in India.
At the end of FY21, Yashish Dahiya driven Policybazaar recorded over 4.8 crore consumers’ registrations with 1.9 crore policies purchased. Around 12.65 crore users visited the online platform during FY2021. The Indian insurance market is one of the least penetrated markets in terms of sum assured as a percentage of GDP of only 24.6 percent, compared to 265 percent in the USA and 95.4 percent in China in FY20.
