ETechAces raises Rs500 cr for PolicyBazaar, PaisaBazaar

ETechAces Marketing and Consulting, the parent company of PolicyBazaar and PaisaBazaar, on Thursday closed a Rs500 crore funding round led by private equity majors, including True North, IDG Ventures India and global asset management firm Wellington Management, valuing the firm at around $500 million.

Existing investors, including Temasek and Tiger Global participated in the round.

A PolicyBazaar spokesperson said the funds will be used to improve technology, acquire fresh customers and venture into new geographies such as Dubai.

Apart from the current round of funding, the company, which owns both the online financial services marketplaces, has so far raised around Rs500 crore through five rounds from other investors, including PremjiInvest, Inventus Capital Partners, Ribbit Capital Portfolio Company, Steadview Capital Management and Info Edge.

PolicyBazaar sells insurance products on its platform, while PaisaBazaar sells loans and credit cards.

Including the latest round, the company, which was founded in 2008 by IIT Delhi and IIM Ahmedabad alum Yashish Dahiya, has to date raised about Rs1,000 crore. There have been no secondary exits as part of the new round.

"We would try to leverage the NRI population that has awareness about our brands and gradually try to expand our business," ETechAces' founder Yashish Dahiya told The Times of India. "We will continue to focus on process ease, product innovation and create awareness around protection products - term (pure life insurance), health and disease specific products like cancer & heart care - which we believe are the future drivers of insurance in India.''

Wellington, with around $1 trillion under management, has backed some of the most valuable startups such as Silicon Valley's Airbnb and Pinterest. The investment in ETechAces could well be its first wager on a private technology company in the country.