Goldman Sachs-backed InsuranceDekho acquires Gujarat-based insurance distributor IRSS

Ankit Agrawal, co-founder and CEO, InsuranceDekho

InsuranceDekho on April 19 said that it acquired IRSS, one of the largest institutional insurance distributors in Gujarat state. This comes less than a month after the insurtech start-up acquired Mumbai-based SME insurance distribution startup, Verak.

With this new move, the startup wants to strengthen its distribution network and penetration into the crucial insurance market of western India. IRSS founder Kuldeep Trivedi and his team will join InsuranceDekho.Trivedi, who will join the core leadership team, is an industry veteran with more than 25 years of insurance distribution experience in Western India.

InsuranceDekho aims to reach every corner of India and is on target to have 2 lakh partners covering every pin code in India by the end of 2023.

Ankit Agrawal, Co-founder and CEO of InsuranceDekho said,“ We are excited to welcome Kuldeep Trivedi and his team to the InsuranceDekho family. The team shares our vision of democratizing access to insurance and insuring every Indian. Kuldeep, his team, and their partner network will supercharge InsuranceDekho’s reach and greatly strengthen our proposition in Western India”.

Trivedi, Founder of IRSS added, " Over the past few years, we have worked relentlessly to offer the best insurance products to the people of Gujarat. With InsuranceDekho's strong technology infrastructure, insurer relations, and product portfolio, we aim to further increase our penetration in Western India and provide better value and convenience to our customers.”

Founded in 2016 by Agrawal and Babbar, InsuranceDekho is the insurance arm of the car-selling unicorn CarDekho.

In February this year, InsuranceDekho raised about $150 million in a mix of equity and debt in a Series A round led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management and TVS Capital Funds. According to media reports, post this round, the startup was pegged at about $450-500 million in valuation.

Speaking to Moneycontrol earlier, Agrawal had said, "With this funding, we want to build for Bharat and take our distribution to another 300-400 cities, continue building our tech stack and products, work on branding, and look at a couple of mergers and acquisitions opportunities that we have identified across technology and geography expansion capabilities.”