Zopper, a Noida-based insurtech startup, has raised $75 million in series C funding led by Creaegis. ICICI Venture, Bessemer Venture Partners, Tiger Global, and existing investor Blume Ventures also participated in the equity funding round.
The company runs an insurance-focused SaaS platform. Surjendu Kuila and Mayank Gupta founded Zopper, which has raised $96 million to date, including the latest round of funding. The company primarily provides insurers with end-to-end technology solutions and assists business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) organisations in selling various insurance products.
The latest investment will be used to strengthen the firm’s technology team to assist ecosystem partners in distributing insurance in a technologically seamless manner. It will be used to improve its SaaS platform and data analytics capabilities, build a data engineering team, invest in business development initiatives, and grow inorganically through mergers and acquisitions.
The company also hinted at acquisitions
Surjendu Kuila, co-founder and CEO of Zopper, said, “Data analytics will help us push the next frontier of innovations in the insurtech space.” The startup will also use the funds to expand its global geographic footprint. “Funding was increased to double down on growth.”
In terms of acquisition plans, the CEO stated that it would acquire some early-stage tech startups in the insurance sector in the coming quarters. Ideally, these firms should bring complementary skills. Kuila believes these firms should be assisting and abetting growth.
Zopper is a B2B2C company that collaborates with over 150 partners. The company sells approximately 3.5 lakh policies per month (about 40 lakh policies per year) and operates in approximately 1,200 cities.
In March this year, Zopper surpassed $100 million in annualized insurance premiums. “We have increased this figure by approximately 30 percent to date, and we intend to double it this fiscal year.” If everything goes as planned, we will surpass $200 million by the end of the fiscal year,” Kuila said.
“We intend to reach $500 million in annualized premiums by March 2024 and $1 billion by FY 2026, depending on how the industry grows,” he added.
Business Plan
Kuila described the startup’s business model as integrating with insurance companies on the one hand and connecting with ecosystem partners on the other. It provides relevant insurance products to its client’s customers and charges a fee on product sales. Its revenue is determined by various factors depending on the insurance product.
“COVID pandemic acted as a silver lining for the insurance sector as people started taking life and health more seriously than they used to. People also started reaching out to platforms selling digital insurance policies,” said Kulia.
He added that the pandemic played a very significant role in changing consumers’ psychology and behavior around insurance. This also helped Zopper, which turned profitable over the last two years.
“Insurance is fairly new in India. Today, insurers do not go beyond metro and satellite cities due to the lack of economic viability. Our low insurance penetration can, however, be increased using technology. All companies, therefore, go after the top ten to fifteen percent of the working population,” said Kuila.
To reach the “missing middle” who lie outside the protective boundaries of insurance, in tier 2, tier 3 and tier 4 cities, technology is paramount, he added.
