Policybazaar is an Indian

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

aggregator and multinational financial technology company based in

Gurgaon Gurgaon (pronunciation: �ʊɽɡãːw, officially named Gurugram (pronunciation: �ʊɾʊɡɾaːm, is a city located in the northern Indian state of Haryana. It is situated near the Delhi–Haryana border, about southwest of the nationa ...

. The company was founded in June 2008 by Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal and Avaneesh Nirjar. It provides a digital platform - website and app - where users can compare

insurance policies In insurance, the insurance policy is a contract (generally a standard form contract) between the insurer and the policyholder, which determines the claims which the insurer is legally required to pay. In exchange for an initial payment, known as ...

and other financial services from major insurance companies. The company is India's largest insurance aggregator, and has expanded its operations to the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. Policybazaar is the flagship subsidiary of PB Fintech Ltd which also owns the

credit Credit (from Latin verb ''credit'', meaning "one believes") is the trust which allows one party to provide money or resources to another party wherein the second party does not reimburse the first party immediately (thereby generating a debt) ...

product aggregator Paisabazaar.

History

Policybazaar.com was founded in June 2008 by Yashish Dahiya, Alok Bansal, and Avaneesh Nirjar, starting out as an insurance comparison website. At that time, the Indian insurance industry still lacked transparency and policies were mostly sold through agents. Policybazaar started by listing the details of multiple insurance policies for customers to choose from. It began as a price-comparison website, and an information portal for learning about insurance and insurance programs. The website subsequently expanded to becoming a marketplace for

. In 2015, Policybazaar launched its app for Android and

iOS iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

users. In February 2020, Sarbvir Singh was appointed CEO effective December 2019 while Yashish Dahiya took over the role of group CEO. In June 2021, Policybazaar obtained the

insurance broking An insurance broker is an intermediary who sells, solicits, or negotiates insurance on behalf of a client for compensation. An insurance broker is distinct from an insurance agent in that a broker typically acts on behalf of a client by negoti ...

license from IRDAI and announced that it would set up 100 offline outlets across India. The company also surrendered its web aggregator license.

Product

Policybazaar moved from a policy price comparison website to an insurance selling operation. The company claims to process nearly 25% of India's life insurance and over 7% of the country's retail health cover. Policybazaar provides several types of insurance plans like

life insurance Life insurance (or life assurance, especially in the Commonwealth of Nations) is a contract between an insurance policy holder and an insurer or assurer, where the insurer promises to pay a designated beneficiary a sum of money upon the death ...

health insurance Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...

motor insurance Vehicle insurance (also known as car insurance, motor insurance, or auto insurance) is insurance for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bodily injury r ...

travel insurance Travel insurance is an insurance product for covering unforeseen losses incurred while travelling, either internationally or domestically. Basic policies generally only cover emergency medical expenses while overseas, while comprehensive policies ...

as well as group plans. Policybazaar.com has tie-ups with insurance companies that help it procure information such as price, benefit, insurance cover, etc. directly from the insurers. Users can use the Policybazaar website or app to research, compare and buy insurance policies from over 40 insurance providers. Policybazaar has companies, who offer

car insurance Vehicle insurance (also known as car insurance, motor insurance, or auto insurance) is insurance for cars, trucks, motorcycles, and other road vehicles. Its primary use is to provide financial protection against physical damage or bodily injury r ...

, corporate insurance, and

, as its business partners.

Insurance Regulatory And Development Authority of India The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is a regulatory body under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance , Government of India and is tasked with regulating and licensing the insurance and re-insurance industrie ...

regulates the insurance web aggregation business of Policybazaar. The company is registered as an insurance web aggregator under the Insurance Web Aggregator Regulations, 2017.

Funding

Policybazaar.com has so far raised US$366 million in 7 rounds of funding since its inception in 2008.

Info Edge Info Edge (India) Limited is an Indian pure play internet company, based in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. It was founded by Sanjeev Bikhchandani in 1995. The company runs an online job portal Naukri.com, a matrimony website Jeevansathi.com, a real es ...

, which runs the online job portal

Naukri.com Naukri.com is an Indian employment website operating in India and Middle East. It was founded in March 1997 by Indian businessman Sanjeev Bikhchandani. Naukri.com is the largest employment website in India. History and milestones Naukri.com ...

, invested as the seed fund in Policybazaar in mid 2008. Intel Capital and Info Edge invested into Policybazaar in May 2011 as part of the venture round. Policybazaar raised US$9 million from Intel Capital and Inventus Capital Partners in its series A investment round. Policybazaar raised US$5 million in its third round of funding in April 2013. This Series B investment was led by Inventus Capital Partners along with Info Edge and Intel Capital. In May 2014, Policybazaar.com raised $20 million in a Series C round of funding from existing investors including

Tiger Global Management Tiger Global Management, LLC (often referred to as Tiger Global and formerly known as Tiger Technology) is an American investment firm. It mainly focuses on Internet, software, consumer, and financial technology industries. Background and histo ...

. Policybazaar raised around $40 million in its Series D round of funding in April 2015 from Premji Invest, the personal investment vehicle of

Wipro Wipro Limited (formerly, Western India Palm Refined Oils Limited) is an Indian multinational corporation that provides information technology, consulting and business process services. Thierry Delaporte is serving as CEO and managing directo ...

chairman

Azim Premji Azim Hashim Premji (born 24 July 1945) is an Indian businessman, investor, engineer, and philanthropist, who was the chairman of Wipro Limited. Premji remains a non-executive member of the board and founder chairman. He is informally known as ...

. The Series D also attracted money from Steadview Capital and ABG Capital. Policybazaar raised US$77 million in its Series E funding round. This was led by at least three new investors including True North and IDG Venture Partners invested in this round. Also, several media reports claimed that Boston-based asset management firm Wellington Management Group invested in the online insurance aggregator. Policybazaar raised a total of US$238 million in June 2018 in its series F funding. Tokyo-based

Softbank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

’s Vision fund led the round with its US$150 million investment that gave it a 15% stake in the parent company of Policybazaar - ETechAces Marketing and Consulting. The Series F investment saw Info Edge put in $45 million in the company through a special purpose vehicle, effectively lifting its stake to 13% from 9%. Softbank invested an additional $130 million to increase its stake to 15% in July 2020, valuing Policybazaar at around U$1.5 billion. In November 2021, PB Fintech Ltd, the parent company of Policybazaar, opened its

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

(IPO) and raised . Shares of PB Fintech Ltd began trading on National Stock Exchange and

Bombay Stock Exchange BSE Limited, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is an Indian stock exchange. It is located on Dalal Street in Mumbai. Established in 1875 by cotton merchant Premchand Roychand, a Jain businessman, it is the oldest stock exchange in ...

on 15 November 2021.

Investors

SoftBank Group is a Japanese multinational conglomerate holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo which focuses on investment management. The Group primarily invests in companies operating in technology, energy, and financial sectors. It also runs the ...

(15.76%) *

(India) Limited (14.56%) * SVF Python II (Cayman) (9.5%) *

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

(9.16%) *

Claymore Investment A claymore (; from gd, claidheamh- mòr, "great sword") is either the Scottish variant of the late medieval two-handed sword or the Scottish variant of the basket-hilted sword. The former is characterised as having a cross hilt of forward-sl ...

(6.26%) *

* Falcon Edge * Alpha Wave * Chiratae Ventures * Inventus Capital Partners * Premji Invest * Ribbit Capital * Steadview Capital Management *

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, or simply Temasek, is a Singaporean state holding company owned by the Government of Singapore. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek owns and manages a total of US$496.59 billion (S$671 billion) in assets u ...

* True North traces *

Wellington Management Company Wellington Management Company is a private, independent investment management firm with client assets under management totaling over US$1 trillion based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The firm serves as an investment advisor to over ...

Awards

* IAMAI Indian Digital Awards for best financial website 2015 * Award for Best Mobile App Consumer Finance in 2015 by GSF Mobile Appies * Exchange4media Golden Mikes Award 2015 * CMO Asia Awards 2015 * BAM Award 2015 * Excellence in Operations - Iconic IDC Insight Award 2015 * Emerging Star Award - BML Munjal Award 2017 * Insurance Innovation Award 2018 - The Digital Insurer Global Livefest Award * Best Insurance Tech - IAMAI India Digital Awards 2018 * Best Marketing & PR Campaigns - India PR & Communications Awards 2018 * Best Content in Online PR Campaign - Drivers of Digital - Inkspell Awards 2018 * Best Consumer Awareness Campaign - Silver -Economic Times Brand Equity Kaleido Award 2019 * Best bank in Fintech - Financial Express Best Bank 2019 * Leading Fintech Innovator in India - KPMG-H2 Ventures Report

Controversies

In early 2019, Policybazaar filed an intellectual property case against insurance company

Acko General Insurance Acko General Insurance is a private sector general insurance company in India. Founded in November 2016, the company received its license from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) in September 2017. Acko follows an ...

and Coverfox Insurance Broking Private Limited for trademark infringement. In May 2021, the

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) is a regulatory body under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Finance , Government of India and is tasked with regulating and licensing the insurance and re-insurance industrie ...

(IRDAI) imposed a fine of on Policybazaar for flouting norms related to

SMS Short Message/Messaging Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile devices exchange short text ...

advertising.

References

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External links

Official websitePolicyBazaar UAE
Indian companies established in 2008 Financial services companies established in 2008 Online financial services companies of India Insurance companies of India Companies based in Gurgaon 2008 establishments in Haryana 2021 initial public offerings Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange