Amazon has restarted its funding efforts in India after failing to acquire Flipkart. Recently, Acko, a digital insurance startup has confirmed that the U.S. tech giant has led the funding rounds for its business. Amazon has been linked with Acko from the start of this year. They funded a startup – Capital Float previous month and has led a $12 million funding on Acko along with the founder of ChrysCapital, Ashish Dhawan. The new funding rounds take the total funding of Acko to $42 million.
The origin of Acko dates back to 2016 when it was founded by Varun Dua. With Acko, Varun is taking on the $10 billion insurance industry by trying to make it digital-only. Due to the increasing internet growth in India, Varun thought that they can make develop more relevant products and make it digital.
Start Of Acko, Digital Based Insurance Company
The company took a great start last year when it raised $30 million. The most noticeable part is that it raised the fundings even without acquiring the license to offer the insurance. After nearly a year, Acko acquired the automobile company insurance policies and also started an internet economy section this January. The internet economy section lured the interest of Amazon in becoming a potential insurance partner of Acko.
Acko tried to partner with big names in the industry. It tried to partner with major e-commerce and travel related products. It also launched the passenger-insurance for people who use Uber, Ola and other traveling apps. Missing of flights due to traffic, minor accidents were covered by the insurance offered by the company. The insurance claim was a built-in feature in apps like Ola for simplifying the process for the users.
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Interviews And Partnership Deals
In an interview, Varun Dua said, “From user behavior, we understood that user contacts Ola during any issue, so we wanted to make the process simple for them so we integrated it within the app itself. So far, Acko has covered insurance for over 10 million Ola rides”.
Acko was in investment talks with Flipkart before the latter was acquired by the rivals of Amazon. On collaboration with Amazon, Varun said that “We are a new age insurance company and Amazon believes that they can make create a value product with us. The first focus will be providing gadget protection although nothing is final. They want us to work independently without laying down any conditions”. He also added that Amazon’s funding will help them increase their business value.
Amazon has been investing in more than half a dozen startups which includes home service company, financial comparison, and a gift card startup.
Future Plans Of Acko
On speaking about the future plans of Acko, Varun said that “Acko is trying to raise a significant funding in the next year which will get them enough capital to execute their plan and strategies for at least three years. The company has been in talks with the global companies to raise fundings for its business plan. A lot of things we are trying to achieve are new and there are no specific regulations on it”.
