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With the growing insecurities, rising frauds, and the transience of the lives of everything that surround us, insurance has become an inevitable truth of our lives.
Whether it is our car, bike and our own selves, insurance from beforehand almost always come in handy if not proving to be a great savior. However, not all insurance service providers are satisfied with zero commission and are happy to serve their customers online but Acko is, which is why Acko is swiftly rising in demand!
Acko is here to serve the Indians with Premium insurance solutions. The company is now a unicorn!
Read about Ruchi Deepak and Varun Dua's Acko success story below, along with the Acko company details, its Business model, Revenue, Funding details, Investors, Growth, Competitors, Acko products like the Acko mobile, health, bike, car, general and group health insurance, and more.
Acko - Company Highlights
- Startup Name-Acko
- Headquarters-Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
- Sector-Insurance
- Founder -Varun Dua, Ruchi Deepak
- Founded -November 2016
- Total Revenue-INR 195.6215 Crore (March 31, 2020)
- Net Profit/(Loss)-(INR 187.838 Crore)
- Total Funding-$458 million (October 2021)
- Total Valuation-$1.1 billion (October 2021)
- Website-acko.com
Acko - About
Acko General Insurance is a private general insurance company operating in India. The company has received its license from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDA) in September 2017. Acko boasts of an online model of insurance, with the help of which it offers its customers premium insurance facilities and bite-sized insurance products with zero commissions. All the operations of the company take place through its digital platform, thereby removing the need for any paperwork!
Acko started in 2016 as the first digital insurer of India, and is currently growing fast indeed. Acko claims to have served over 50 million unique customers to date.
Acko - Startup Story
Acko was founded by Varun Dua and Ruchi Deepak in 2016 as the first digital insurance service provider in India. The cumbersome, boring, and non-transparent process that people have to undergo even when it comes to the insurance of simple products like automobiles were some of the primary things that Varun and Ruchi wanted to target, which eventually led to the foundation of Acko.
Talking about the insurance industry, co-founder Ruchi said, "One of the biggest flaws is the price point of these products".
"We saw a huge opportunity that a digitally empowered insurance company could unlock both in terms of customer experience and enterprise value. My co-founder Varun Dua and I decided to pursue it,” added Ruchi.
Varun Dua serves as the Chief Executive Officer of the company whereas Ruchi Deepak is the founder-director of the company. Acko is now backed by investors like Accel Partners, SAIF Partners, and Catamaran Ventures. It includes domestic trips insurance as well as mobile insurance.
Acko - Products and Services
The Acko products include insurance of:
- Car and taxi
- Bike
- Health
Acko Products
Acko General Insurance provides exclusive Acko mobile insurance, Acko car insurance, Acko bike insurance, Acko Group Health insurance, and more. Let's check out some of these insurances and how they work:
Acko Mobile Insurance - Acko offers the users the effective protection plans along with the purchase of new mobile phones in the form of Acko mobile insurance plans, which helps the users with a smooth and efficient process to have their phones repaired in case of a mobile breakdown.
Acko Health Insurance - Acko provides Acko Health insurance policy, which helps the insured person get financial assistance in case of sudden illnesses, unfortunate incidents and planned/emergency hospitalisation. While some of the Acko health insurance policies provide basic hospitalisation coverages, some others cover for wellness benefits, preventive healthcare, and more.
Acko Car Insurance - Acko car insurance policy offers coverage for numerous care-related risks. Opting for a car insurance from Acko will help the users get financial assistance in case their car faces damages or cause damages to others.
Acko Bike Insurance - Acko also has its own bike insurance policies. The Acko bike insurance policy helps the users cover both their old bikes and the new ones. The insurance coverage that Acko provides the users, helps them get instant policy and instant claim benefits.
Acko Group Health Insurance - Acko also offers Acko Group Health Insurance, which is designed to serve as a modern employee benefits plan built for the employees working in a post-Covid era.
Among the car and taxi insurance products, is the Ola Trip Insurance, which is a micro-insurance product of Acko that helps insures cab passengers. It was also awarded with the Golden Peacock Innovative Product award in 2019.
The Acko team is working actively to improve every aspect of its products and insurance services that it offers. With the power of data and technology, the pricing, purchase, claims and more are all being improved by Acko.
Acko Services
Acko is also offering customised prices, instant policy, super-quick claim settlements, on top of the products that it is offering, and is always driving forward to "make insurance as friendly as a smile." Besides, the Acko team is united in their passion for customer convenience and is driven by the love and support of their customers and investors.
Acko - Founder And Team
Varun Dua
Varun Dua is the CEO and the founder of the company, Acko. He completed his education at MICA, Ahmedabad, and the University of Mumbai. After finishing his graduation, Varun served as a Trainee at Leo Burnett Advertising for less than a year. He then started his career as a Marketing Manager at Tata AIG Life Insurance and Franklin Templeton Investments. Varun then founded Coverfox Insurance Broking Pvt. Ltd. and is known as the Founder and CEO of the company. Before he founded Coverfox in 2013, Varun founded 2 other companies namely Enser Communications and Glitterbug Technologies. He has been working here since 2016.
Ruchi Deepak
Ruchi Deepak is another founder of Acko. She held senior designations in Coverfox, Matrix Partners, and Franklin Templeton Investments, where she was introduced to Varun, which led them to found Acko in 2016. When she was setting up the company and filing for the licence in October 2016, Ruchi gave birth to her twins, which shows the dedication she has for her work and makes her an inspirational entrepreneur along with Varun, a serial entrepreneur.
Ruchi Deepak, founder and director of Acko
Ruchi is from Jamshedpur and is an alumnus of Lady Shri Ram College (LSR) where she studied in the Faculty of Law. She is a co-founder cum director of Acko and has worked as an advisor to more than one startup.
The Acko team has grown significantly. From a huddle of 6 people during the starting phase of the company, Acko has grown to become a team of over 400 employees now. Acko's eclectic mix of a team consists of everyone from coders to financial experts.
Acko - Tagline, Slogan And Logo
Going by the website, Acko's general tagline is "Insurance made easy: Zero commission. Zero paperwork." In order to create awareness, Acko has run a campaign with a tagline, Full Paisa Wasool. The meaning of which is complete value for money insurance.
The logo is basically one of the most important parts of a company. Acko uses 3 colours in its logo, one primary colour and two secondary colours namely white, purple and green. The logo of Acko is sleek, smart, and easy to remember.
Acko - Business Model
The company uses a direct-to-consumer approach and uses it to distribute traditional insurance products via its online platform. This significantly allows for favorable risk selection and underwriting. Along with the car, bike, and health insurance, Acko also offers innovative and bite-sized insurance products like rider insurance, mobile and appliance protection, ticket cancellation, and more. Acko further boasts of being partners with more than 15 leading players in the internet ecosystem like Ola, Oyo, redBus, Zomato, HDB Financial Services, UrbanClap, Rapido, Amazon, and more.
The company claims to have distributed insurance policies to over 62 million unique customers within a short span of 24 months of operations.
Acko - Revenue Model
Acko makes money through its insurance schemes. They have got various sorts of customer-friendly schemes. Due to their customer-centric policies, the company has got 5-star ratings and over 4.5 crore, happy users. They provide their customers with phenomenal customer support and with this, Acko has earned the customers' trust as well.
Acko - Funding And Investors
Acko has raised a total amount of $458 million in funding over the 6 funding rounds. The last funding round that Acko raised on October 27, 2021, was worth $255 mn, led by General Atlantic, Multiples Alternate Asset Management Private Limited, and others. Acko is presently counted as a unicorn Indian startup at a valuation of $1.1 billion, as of October 28, 2021, after the $255 mn round it witnessed.
The company is further looking to raise some funds from its existing as well as new investors, with over 2X premium in its valuation. Sources mentioned that Prosus (formerly Naspers) has been in talks with Acko for several months and that the company will be raising around $200 mn.
Acko has got 21 investors in total out of which there are 8 lead investors. Intact Ventures is the most recent investor. Amazon, Accel Partners, Catamaran Ventures, Elevation Capital, RPS Ventures, and Mr. Binny Bansal are some of the prominent investors of Acko.
Acko - Growth
Acko is backed by Narayan Murthy and Accel. In the year 2019, September, Acko underwrote a premium worth of Rs 41.56 crore. It was a 6x growth compared to 2018 for the company. The previous worth of the premium was Rs 6.53 crore.
The recent funding round on October 27, which helped Acko join the unicorn club of companies, marks a two-fold jump in the valuation of the company. The company was last valued at around $500 million in the last funding round of September 2020, which went up to become $1.1 bn after the $225 mn funding round that helped the company turn into a unicorn.
The pandemic surely restricted the customers from visiting the showrooms. However, on the other hand, the purchase of vehicles through digital platforms has increased significantly. The digital insurance company, Acko has experienced a whopping 120% growth in the sales of insurance policies for automobiles in the first quarter of FY22 when compared with the same period last year.
Acko also posted Rs 81 crore in Gross Written Premium in the first quarter of FY22. The company has seen a growth of 1.16 times for their auto business in contrast to the same quarter of FY21. New customer growth from non-metro cities also saw around 3.5 times growth during the same period of the year. For the metro cities, the growth was around 2.5 times.
Acko Revenue FY19-FY21
The website of Acko currently sees 4 million+ users in a single month and has witnessed an increasing graph when it comes to traffic, which surged by 161% in the April to June quarter of FY22 when compared to the same time period in FY21.
Besides, Acko claims to have around 70 million customers across the country. Furthermore, it also boasts of having one of the largest market shares in embedded insurance products like mobility and gadget insurance across famous digital consumer platforms like Amazon, MakeMyTrip, Ola, Urban Company, Bajaj Finance, and others.
Acko - Partnerships
Acko has seen some partnerships since it started as a company. To mention, some of the prominent ones are:
- Acko collaborated with Ola to launch an in-trip insurance programme that is running in over 110 cities.
- The company partnered with Amazon India to bring in mobile insurance plans on the website of the seller.
- With Amazon Pay, Acko witnessed another partnership, which helped the startup to launch an auto insurance policy in July 2020.
- Acko also collaborated with HDB Financial Services and offered the HDBFS insurance for the customers, which doesn't have any additional costs with EMI cards.
Acko - Competitors
The top competitors of the company are Easypolicy, PolicyBazaar and Digit.
Easypolicy is the top competitor of Acko. It was founded in 2011, in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. This company competes with Acko in the Health and Life Insurance industry. It generates lesser revenue than Acko.
PolicyBazaar is one of the top competitors of Acko. It was founded in 2008 in Gurgaon, Haryana, India. This company also operates in the Health and Life Insurance industry. It generates more revenue than Acko.
Digit is also one of the top competitors of Acko. It was founded in 2016 and is headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, India. Digit also works in the Health and Life Insurance sector. In terms of revenue, Digit also generates less revenue than Acko.
Acko - Awards and Recognition
Being a successful startup that is already a unicorn, and is growing each day, Acko has received numerous awards. Some of them are:
- Acko received an award for being the “Best Insure-tech Company” in the BW Festival of Fintech 2021 in February 2021.
- The company received the “Most Innovative Insurer” award in the Non- Life Segment at the FICCI Insurance Industry Awards 2020.
- Acko's micro-insurance product, Ola trip insurance received the “Golden Peacock Innovative Product Award” in 2019.
Acko - Future Plans
Varun Dua and Ruchi Deepak are currently looking to scale up the value of the products. The company will look into the health insurance schemes. Furthermore, the company also strives to add more employees in the upcoming months. Also, Acko is planning to scale up largely across the verticals of technology, auto insurance, and micro-insurance products across travel, gadgets, and appliances.
FAQs
What is ACKO?
Acko General Insurance is a private general insurance company in India. It is popularly known as India’s first digital insurance company.
Where is the Acko headquarters?
Acko headquarters is in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India.
Does ACKO provide cashless insurance schemes?
Yes, ACKO has cashless schemes for insurance.
Is ACKO General Insurance reliable and trustworthy?
Yes, ACKO General Insurance is quite reliable and trustworthy. It is licensed and certified by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI).
What is Acko new car insurance?
The Acko car insurance policy also have new car insurance policies that cover the new cars as soon as they are bought from their respective showrooms. Besides, it also has car insurance policies for old cars, which covers for all the damages dealt and received by the insured cars.
What is Acko insurance mobile?
Acko insurance mobile or the Acko mobile insurance is an insurance policy of Acko to cover the damages for mobiles of the users.
What is Acko health insurance?
Acko health insurance is another Acko product that provides insurance coverage essential for people's healthcare needs. The health insurance of Acko offers financial assistance to the insured patient in case of any unfortunate event, accidents, planned/emergency hospitalisation, and more.
What is meant by Acko group health insurance policy?
Acko brings the all-new Acko group health insurance policy, which helps employees get the financial assistance they deserve in this post-Covid era.
