Amazon to invest in Accel and SAIF-backed e-insurance startup Acko

Online retail giant Amazon, which was planning to launch its financial products in India is in the final stage to invest in Acko, an online-only insurance startup.

According to a TOI report, Amazon will invest close to Rs 100 crore and develop financial products along with Acko which will also act as a distributor of those products. When the deal goes through, Amazon will start selling a slew of financial products on its site.

The Mumbai-based e-insurance startup was also in talks with Indian e-commerce behemoth Flipkart for a potential investment, however, the deal didn't get materialised.

Earlier in 2017, Acko Technologies, which runs the startup, had received an in-principle clearance from the regulator to launch Acko General Insurance. The firm had raised Rs 200 crore separately in May 2017.

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The company was founded in 2013 by Varun Dua, who had co-founded Coverfox.com, an online insurance brokerage company, along with Devendra Rane. Since then Varun has moved on to Acko.

The insurance firm is backed by the likes of N R Narayan Murthy's Catamaran Ventures, Infosys co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan, Hemendra Kothari of DSP Blackrock, and venture funds Accel Partners and SAIF Partners.

Also Read: Insurance brokerage startup Coverfox raises Rs 96 cr from Transamerica and others

Besides Amazon, its arch-rival Flipkart is also eyeing to foray into multiple sectors to accelerate its top line. The Bengaluru-based company is now all set to sell insurance products on its platform. It will initially begin selling products in general, life and health insurance and later add motor insurance as well.

Flipkart will offer the entire gamut of services ranging from discovery, transaction, payment, delivery to after-sales services.

Of late, Amazon appears to be upping its ante against arch-rivals with series of investments in different units. The Seattle-based company invested $450 million (Rs 2,900 crore) into Amazon Seller Service. This is the largest capital infusion into its marketplace arm ever in a year. With this, the total investment in its Indian unit reaches $4 billion (Rs 26,180 crore).

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