Policybazaar Eyes A Valuation of $3.5 Billion in IPO 2021

As the online insurance platform drives a wave of rising demand for coverage from India’s rising middle-class, Policybazaar is gearing up for a $500 million Initial Public Offering (IPO).

Co-Founder Yashish Dahiya told a move that would value the Indian startup at a hefty $3.5 billion and Policybazaar is looking at September of 2021 for the IPO. A top investor in Policybazaar is Softbank Group’s Vision Fund, having recently agreed to pump an additional $130 million into the online insurance platform’s parent company. 

Although, with life insurance carriers doing well the industry has grown significantly in recent years in India. Other investors include Tencent Holdings and Tiger Capital Management. As current Indian regulations don’t permit dual listings by financial service companies or by companies or in other “sensitive sectors”, the company plans to list only in Mumbai.

Policybazaar’s drive to expand and go public comes at an opportune time, with the Indian government pushing to extend health and other insurance policies beyond the tiny slice of the population that currently has coverage.

As of 2017, just 3.69 percent of India’s population has insurance coverage, according to the India Brand Equity Foundation. Of the 57 insurance companies in the country, 24 sell life insurance policies, and the remaining 33 provide health and other coverage.

According to IBEF, life insurance companies have seen the premiums they collect from Indian policyholders to more than double over the past eight years, rising from just under $40 billion in 2012 to more than $94 billion in 2020.