Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Amazon is reportedly going to invest an undisclosed amount in online-only insurance startup Acko. As a part of the deal, Amazon will co-create financial products with Acko, along with being its distributor. This would be the first such move by the web retailer.

According to some sources, Flipkart was also in talks with Acko for a similar deal, but those talks fell through. Finally, the company is now going forward with Amazon.

Recently, the Mumbai-based startup received final license from the insurance regulator. The company was expected to start operations by December 2017, mostly focusing on selling auto, travel and health insurance products to retail customers.

The company had first raised around ₹200 crore ($30 million) in May last year, marking the largest funding deal in the insurance space in India. The seed funding round of Acko witnessed participation from Narayana Murthy and Kris Gopalakrishnan of Infosys, DSP Blackrock’s Hemendra Kothari, Hexaware’s Atul Nishar and Arpwood’s Rajeev Gupta besides venture capital firms SAIF Partners and Accel India.

Acko got registered in August last year under its parent company Acko Technologies. Varun Dua, who had founded Coverfox with Devendra Rane, left the firm and moved to Acko as the chief executive officer.

The company plans to spend the raised capital on building technology, especially in data analytics, and in distribution. It will also spend raised money on marketing since Acko is a new brand.

By Jeet