Acko gets regulator's nod to start general insurance business

Acko, an online general insurance company, today said it has received the final clearance from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (Irdai) to start its business in the country.
In November, the company had filed an application with the Irdai seeking a licence to start general insurance business in the country.
Go Digit and DHFL are two other firms that have also been given final nod by the regulator to kick off their general insurance operations.
Set up by Varun Dua, founder of Coverfox, Acko General Insurance recently raised USD 30 million.
The investment was backed by Narayan Murthy's Catamaran Ventures, Venk Krishnan and Subba Rao of NuVentures, Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder Infosys, Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock, Atul Nishar, founder and chairman of Hexaware Technologies, Rajeev Gupta, veteran investment banker and founder of Arpwood Capital, Accel and SAIF Partners.

The company is looking at starting its operations by December.

"We are looking to start operations by December by selling multiple products through online channel," Dua said.
"Our team has mapped a huge opportunity to tap into the online general insurance segment which is estimated to be over USD 10 billion annually.
"This has helped us to take a plunge as an insuretech (firm) that is completely digital in the general insurance space without the traditional set up of the brick and mortar format," he said.
Go Digit General Insurance has been floated by India- born Canadian businessman Prem Watsa, who controls Fairfax, the parent firm of Lombard.

Interestingly, the Irdai nod for Go Digit came a day after the Rs 5,600 crore initial public offer by ICICI Lombard General Insurance.
DHFL received the nod to start its general insurance venture some time back, but the clearance has been notified by the regulator now, an Irdai official told PTI.