Insurance comparison website PolicyBazaar plans to launch its IPO by the end of 2018. However, the public offer will be made after raising close to USD50 million (INR326.5 crore) in a pre-IPO round, CEO Yashish Dahiya told DealStreet Asia. The insurance comparison portal is operated by EtechAces Marketing and Consulting Pvt Ltd and according to Dahiya, the core business has turned profitable.
“We are in late discussions of raising USD50 million. This is not for business requirement but because we want to build balance sheet strength,”
– Yashish Dahiya
The executive said the company became in November 2016 and hopes to close the current fiscal year with revenues of INR210 crore (INR2.1 billion).
For the next year, Dahiya targets a profit of INR50 crore on the topline of INR350 crore. This will be a stark contrast to the financial performance in FY 2015/16 during which the company’s revenues grew at INR109 crore but losses outpaced to INR110 crore. Dahiya added that the company has a tight cost control in place and is now focusing more on health, life, critical illness and accident insurance products, marking a departure from traditional endowment plans, money-back plans and unit-linked insurance.
Funds raised from the pre-IPO round will be used towards expanding offering under PaisaBazaar.com. The company is also looking to add more products in mutual funds category and expand low-ticket size mass products like two-wheeler insurance.
PolicyBazaar IPO not far
The company will not wait to wrap up the pre-IPO round before starting ground work on its maiden public offer. Dahiya added that the company has already started working with investment bankers in preparation for the IPO.
“We might do an IPO by October next year. The preparation has started; our CFO Alok Bansal is meeting people for the last six months,” added the CEO.
PolicyBazaar is the leading player in the online insurance domain which also includes Bank Bazaar and Coverfox. InfoEdge, Tiger Global Management and Premji Invest are among the prominent investors in the company which was valued at USD210 million in the latest round of funding.
PolicyBazaar needs to be ethical to succeed.