Exclusive: Tiger Global in talks to infuse a new round in Plum Insurance

Enterprise-focused group insurance platform Plum Insurance is in talks with hedge fund Tiger Global to mop up a new round, according to three people aware of the details of the transaction. 

This would be the third funding round for the company which has raised about $5 million in total funding till now.

“Plum has been in conversation with Tiger to raise $10-15 million in a new round,” said one of the sources requesting anonymity. “The round may be extended over $20 million as well.”

Launched in late 2019 by Abhishek Poddar and Saurabh Arora, Plum Insurance helps companies as small as five members to get group insurance for their employees. It claims to have an integrated digital insurance experience that enables them to initiate their insurance claims without any external help.

According to sources, existing investors including Sequoia will also participate in the round. “The company will be valued in the range of $60 to 80 million,” said the second person who also wished not to be named.

The terms of the deal may change and it may not materialize, the sources said.

Plum was valued at about $19 million in its last financing round. Entrackr had exclusively reported its fundraising in December which was led by Sequoia.

Queries sent to Plum’s co-founder and CEO Abhishek Poddar, Tiger and Sequoia didn’t elicit any response. We will update the story in case they do.

Over the past 18-20 months, a host of startups including Plum, Secure Now, Onsurity, PazCare and Nova Insurance among others have emerged to capture the group insurance opportunity amongst SME and startups. Unlike the traditional insurance companies which were largely catering to corporates and large companies, these new-age companies help SMEs and startups to buy insurance for their employees through smart underwriting and fraud detection algorithms.

While Plum had raised two rounds of capital in the past 9 months and on its way for the third round, Onsurity had raised Rs 20 crore last year and early this week, bluechip angels including Kunal Shah, Gaurav Munjal, Miten Sampat and Anand Jain led an undisclosed round.

According to its website, Plum's clients include Clevertap, Groww, Family, Twilio and many others. The company aims to onboard about 3,000 clients by the end of this year and 50,000 in the next two years.