PolicyBazaar raises $75 Mn led by Falcon Edge for the UAE and Middle East biz

Online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar has raised $75 million in a round led by Falcon Edge Capital. The primary capital infusion for the IPO bound company has materialised after 18 months. The Gurugram-based company had raised its last round from Tencent in 2019.

“The primary purpose of this raise is to expand the policybazaar.ae operations and relations in the UAE which does insurance and loans and credit cards,” said Yashish Dahiya, co-founder and Group CEO, PolicyBazaar over email to Entrackr.

PolicyBazaar’s UAE business is led by Neeraj Gupta. Gupta has been associated with PolicyBazaar Group for the past nine years.

"The contours of the new round was agreed upon in August 2020 and concluded in February," said Dahiya. The primary infusion comes soon after PolicyBazaar executed a secondary transaction worth $45 million in which private equity firm True North and some angel and individual investors sold their stakes.

According to an ET report, the secondary deal valued the firm at about $2.4 billion.

“We believe the UAE is a very attractive market and with some local help and guidance from Falcon Edges UAE partners, we should be able to build a good business. Also, a large number of Indians in the UAE implies they are familiar with the Indian company and it’s brand values which should give us a strong start,” Dahiya added.

PolicyBazaar is targeting a $3.5 billion worth of public listing by this year. It would be the second-largest bet by Info Edge that will go IPO in 2021. Foodtech unicorn Zomato, in which the Noida-based Internet group owns more than 20% stake, is all set to go public in 2021.

With its expansion in the UAE market, PolicyBazaar has turned out to be another venture to test the Middle East and UAE regions in the recent past. Besides Byju’s and Urban Company, FreshToHome, Oyo, Infibeam and a few others are also operational in key cities of the regions.

While the company is targeting IPO this year, PolicyBazaar was nowhere close to profitability. According to Fintrackr, the firm had crossed Rs 516 crore in operating revenue with a loss of Rs Rs 218 crore. On a unit level, it spent Rs 1.43 to earn a single rupee of revenue in FY20.

The company expects to clock a revenue of Rs 1,100 crore in FY21 with marginal profits. “We are patient and not in any hurry but will be long term players and build a robust business over the next 3-7 years,” added Dahiya.