Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures-backed digital insurance company Acko General Insurance has received final license from Insurance Regulator and Development Authority of India (IRDAI). Acko received the final license on September 18, and is looking to commence operations in December 2017.
M/s. Acko General Insurance Limited has been registered as a General Insurer under Section 3 of the Insurance Act,1938 with the Authority. The Certificate of Registration (Form – IRDAI/ R3) was issued to them by the Authority on 18.09.2017 bearing registration no.157.
Acko has also been added to IRDAI’s list of Non-Life Insurers.
The company had filed its application for license in November last year, and received in-principal regulatory clearance early this year. At present it is strengthening its team, working on technology and setting up partnerships in order to provide customised insurance products.
In May this year, Acko had raised $30 million in seed funding from Narayan Murthy’s Catamaran Ventures; Venk Krishnan and Subba Rao of NuVentures; Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-founder Infosys; Hemendra Kothari from DSP Blackrock; Atul Nishar, founder & chairman of Hexaware Technologies; Rajeev Gupta, founder of Arpwood Capital; Accel and SAIF Partners. At the time, the company had 20 employees and was looking to increase it to 45-50 by the end of the year.
The company is founded by Varun Dua, who previously founded Coverfox which operates as an online insurance aggregation platform. Dua has moved on from Coverfox to fully operate Acko.
Competition
While Acko is the first insurance company with an online-only policy, most insurance companies offer services online as well. While platforms such as EasyPolicy, Bankbazaar and PolicyBazaar have tied up with insurance companies to offer products to customers online.
