The Insurtech space is abuzz, with investments touching record levels of $10.5 billion as of Q3 2021. Industry leader RenewBuy, one of India’s leading digital insurance platforms, acquired Artivatic, a next-gen technology insurance solutions provider, for an undisclosed amount.
RenewBuy’s vision of “Making insurance simple and accessible to all” through its online platform has helped more than 3 million customers across the country. D2C Insurance Broking Pvt. Ltd, a RenewBuy group company, enables retail customers to buy motor, health and life insurance products with a unique end-to-end digital experience. Users can select from a choice of insurers, compare prices and features and receive advice from trained, certified Point-of-Sale (“POSP”) personnel who help educate and support retail customers during every step of their insurance purchase or renewal journey. Adding Artivatic’s AI and ML-based tech stack will augment RenewBuy’s product offering and provide their customers with an enhanced experience. RenewBuy will take ownership of Artivatic.ai’s SaaS solutions for insurance, IP and product portfolio which will substantially enhance RenewBuy’s current policy delivery and servicing capabilities.
Key Venture was the sole financial advisor in this transaction.
Key Venture identified the synergy between Artivatic’s state-of-the-art tech stack and RenewBuy’s deep-rooted distribution in the Indian market making it an easy decision for RenewBuy to join hands with Artivatic. Even though Artivatic had a complex and layered cap table consisting of strategic investors (KFin Services), micro VCs (IAN Fund and Scale Ventures), accelerators (Spark10), Angel Networks (Indian Angel Network and Mumbai Angels Network) and HNIs, Key Venture ran a structured process, enabling Artivatic and RenewBuy to seal the deal within 4 months end-to-end.
Artivatic’s Co-Founder Layak Singh said, “When we started building products for the insurance sector, the word InsurTech didn’t exist. We worked hand-in-hand with insurers to build the ecosystem. Hars Saraf has been a part of our journey, since the early days. His understanding of the InsurTech space and experience in M&A helped us generate handsome returns for our investors. This deal will help us in achieving our vision of insurance for everyone.”
Artivatic’s Co-Founder Puneet Tandon said, “While we have cutting-edge tech capabilities and are constantly innovating in the insurance tech space, Key Venture has a keen understanding of the Insurance landscape and helped leverage our tech capabilities to create a win-win strategy for us. This transaction with RenewBuy will help us in our quest to be the most innovative solutions provider in the insurance domain.”
Renewbuy’s Balachander Sekhar believes, “We pioneered the digital agent distribution model, by putting an app in the hands of an agent. This led to a new revolution, where our POSP (Point of Sales Person) agents could do business anywhere, anytime, making the physical branch redundant. Once we met the team from Artivatic.ai, we realised that the underwriting and claim settlement issues they have solved using their AI-driven solutions will deliver the most powerful digital platform in this space. The integrated solutions will give us a massive competitive edge and solve a long-standing problem for the industry. We really look forward to delivering more and more tech-led solutions for the insurance consumer, with the combined tech capabilities.“
According to S&P Global Market Intelligence data, India accounts for 35% of the US$ 3.66 billion InsurTech-focused venture investments made in the Asia Pacific region. Nidhi Saraf, CEO & Co-Founder of Key Venture believes that this acquisition will be the perfect marriage of technology, innovation, distribution and product solutions and will increase the penetration of technology in the insurance industry.
The transaction was led by Hars Saraf, COO of Key Venture, he says, “Having been associated with the InsurTech space since the early days, I have seen tremendous growth in the industry and right now, I believe the advancements of technology such as AI and big data analytics in the insurance sector in India are going to bring a massive change in operations, understanding risk and creating new products. Leveraging Artivatic’s technological capabilities will help Renewbuy take charge of the insurance sector in India and make insurance simple and easily accessible across India, especially in rural and underserved locations.”
About Key Venture
Key Venture is an Investment Bank that helps companies in M&A and raising early and growth-stage capital from HNIs, VCs, PE, Family Offices, Institutional and Strategic Investors.
https://keyventure.in/
About Artivatic
Founded in 2018 by Layak Singh and Puneet Tandon, Artivatic.AI is a Bengaluru-based Artificial Intelligence (AI) start-up that is integrating technology to build intelligent applications and solutions, especially in the InsurTech space. The technology start-up uses AI, machine learning, deep learning to build intelligent products and solutions for finance, healthcare, and insurance businesses. Artivatic.AI is using a game-changing technology, assisting insurance companies to build personalised risk profiles of customers, track and understand their financial and behavioural journeys, and develop real-time intelligence based on those patterns. Artivatic has over 6 patents and offers 400+ APIs for the insurance industry. https://artivatic.ai/home
About RenewBuy
Founded in 2015 by Balachander Sekhar and Indraneel Chatterjee, RenewBuy is a disruptive InsurTech player providing choice and convenience to customers buying Health, Life and Motor Insurance products, delivered through a trusted network of POSP advisors. The company now has about 70,000 POS partners and has insured more than 3 million customers across 750 cities and towns. Using technology as an enabler, the company has created differentiation in consumer experience and service, as well as in the geographical expansion of the sector. https://www.renewbuy.com/