Through the deal Renewbuy will be merged into Insurancedekho and the former will be valued at around $350 to $360 million, through the process, one of the persons added.
According to Tracxn, Insurancedekho was last valued at $600 million in October 2023, when it had raised $60 million from TVS Capital, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial group and others.
Through the merger, the investors of Renewbuy will get shares in Insurancedekho proportionate to the valuation of both the companies, said the second person aware of the talks. “The exact contours of the deal are still being worked on, but some of the early investors of Renewbuy might get a complete or a part-exit through the secondary sale of their shares,” he added.
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In a secondary share sale, the value of the shares goes to the shareholders and does not go to the company.
Emailed queries to both Renewbuy and Insurancedekho went unanswered.
“Through the deal, the agent network of both the companies will be brought together, thereby undertaking a major consolidation in the insurance distribution business,” said the third person in the know.
The person added that Balachander Sekhar, the chief executive officer of Renewbuy will join Insurancedekho chief executive officer, Ankit Agrawal to lead the merged entity.
“Whether the two entities continue to operate as independent business or they get merged into one brand will be decided subsequently, the deal will also need to be blessed by the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI),” said the third person quoted above.
This will be a major consolidation event in the insurtech industry, where a turf war is brewing between the likes of PB Partners, which is part of listed insurance major Policybazaar, Insurancedekho, which was hived off from used car platform Cardekho, Nexus Venture Partners-backed Turtlemint and Renewbuy.
Agrawal of Insurancedekho had told ET back in October 2023 that he was scouting for inorganic growth opportunities and was hoping to close some acquisition targets. The company had said then that it had around 1.1 lakh field agents and was looking to double it in the next 12 months.
All these entities operate in the point of sales persons (PoSP) business, where insurance brokers appoint their own agents who sell insurance products like health, life, motor, term insurance to customers across the country.
“The acquisition makes sense for Insurancedekho since it will get a major boost in terms of its physical network of agents and help create a very strong player in this area, especially given that the well-capitalised Policybazaar is aggressively chasing market share,” said the third person ET spoke to.
