Acko General Insurance: The firm’s thriving journey in the insurtech space

What is Acko Insurance into?

Established in 2016 and headquartered in Bengaluru, Acko is an insurance company that provides general insurance services to its customers. The firm’s products include vehicle insurance, life insurance, medical insurance, etc.

Also read: Insurance 101: How to protect yourself and your assets!

Acko gained popularity since it was the first digital insurer in the country. A digital insurer is an insurance company providing online insurance services to customers with the help of technology. 

The firm also has the credit of being the fastest-growing insurance company in India today. Acko has so far served over 2.8 crore customers and issued over 8 crore policies. The firm is known for quick settlement of claims, with the fastest one taking only 12 minutes, thanks to its technology, which has eliminated a lot of manual and paperwork in the process.

Despite currently incurring losses, Acko’s revenue for the year ending 30 March 2023 was ₹96,582 lakhs, almost double the previous fiscal’s revenue. The rate of increase is proof of Acko’s growth in the insurance sector. A funding to Acko of $255 million in 2021 led the firm to become the 34th unicorn in the country.

The founder of Acko Insurance – Varun Dua

Varun Dua is the founder and CEO of Acko. He worked for over ten years of in the insurance sector before setting up Acko. After working in the marketing department of TATA AIG, Franklin Templeton and other organisations, Mr Dua decided to try his luck as an entrepreneur.

With a co-founder, Mr Dua set up Coverfox, an online insurance platform, in 2013. Over the years of working as an employee and then an entrepreneur, Mr Dua realised the potential of technology in improving the insurance sector’s climate. So, to use technology and make insurance more accessible to customers, he separated from Coverfox to establish Acko in 2016.

Today, besides owning Acko, Varun Dua is also known for his appearance as a shark in Shark Tank India, Season 3.

Also read: Varun Dua: Navigating the insurtech frontier

India’s insurance sector

According to the IRDAI (Insurance Regulatory Development Authority of India), India’s insurance sector is expected to reach $222 billion by 2026 and become the sixth-largest insurance market in the world.

Currently, India has 57 insurance companies, with 24 of them particularly involved in life insurance, while the rest provide general insurance policies.  

Both life and general insurance sectors have witnessed growth in FY 2023, with the non-life insurance industry growing by about 14.86% and the life insurance industry collecting 18% more premiums than the previous fiscal year.

A recent development in the insurance sector is the rise of insurtech start-ups. As the term suggests, insurtech is a mix of technology in insurance. 

S&P Global, in a report, said India ranks number two among the largest insurtech markets in Asia Pacific. Of the $3.66 billion investments made in insurtech start-ups in APAC, 35% belongs to Indian ventures.

How is Acko combining technology and insurance?

A senior employee in Acko once discussed in the media, how the company combines technology across its processes. According to him, Acko has invested significantly to bring AI and other digital technological tools into its insurance process. 

• Acko uses artificial intelligence, telematics, connected devices and other tools to identify the risks associated with their process. Mitigating and eliminating these risks helps them increase the speed of the entire process of issuing insurance policies.
• Using blockchain technology for payments and processing policies, thereby helping the firm save on its operational costs.
• Underwriting is a crucial process in insurance. It is the process of assessing the risks of potential customers and approving them as clients. Acko tries to automate this process by using various internal and external data sets that can help insurers customise policies to customers in a short span of time.
• Besides, the firm is developing its claim process, where most of the steps are automated, and the paperwork involved is significantly reduced.
• Apart from their business as usual, the firm’s engineering team constantly works on updating their knowledge of the latest technology in the market. They interact with various teams internally and externally, and also invest monetarily in technology to stay up to date.
• Acko also ensures the risk of data misuse is handled by implementing various security measures at different levels, which is one of the reasons for the company’s success in the insurtech space.

Also read: From colonial legacy to global ambition: The Indian insurance sector

Bottomline

An insurance policy is of paramount importance to all individuals who want to plan their finances well. With the growing financial literacy, the need for insurance is increasing too. Along with the rising demand, new trends are entering this space.

Insurtech, the use of technology in insurance, is one such trend. India is rapidly growing in this segment, and Acko is one of the top-performing companies in this sector. Established in 2016, Acko has been successful in going ahead of its competitors and making a mark for itself in the insurance space, by using cutting-edge technology to simplify insurance operations.