>>> Turtlemint raises $25 million from Sequoia, Nexus, others...

Mumbai-based startup Turtlemint Insurance provides a tech platform for insurance agents to sell their products.

Online insurance platform Turtlemint said it has raised $25 million in a fresh funding round led by Sequoia Capital, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. Existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures also participated in the round.

Turtlemint provides a technology platform for insurance agents to sell products, and currently has about 25,000 partners/agents working with it. It plans to use the funds to grow its partner network 10-fold over the next four to six quarters, Dhirendra Mahyavanshi, co-founder of Turtlemint, said in a phone interview.

Turtlemint provides car, health and life insurance, and claims to have sold over 300,000 policies and processed claims worth over ? 20 crore. Its partners include Reliance General Insurance, Bajaj Allianz, and ICICI Lombard.

“We will use the funds raised for expanding partners 10X, creating video content and providing sales tools, and invest in technology to grow the business," said Mahyavanshi.

It plans to make videos to help agents sell better as well as for customers to understand insurance products better, create awareness and receive advice from insurance experts.

Turtlemint provides recommendations based on proprietary algorithms and data analytics, across 700 cities, to help customers select and complete their insurance purchase using its MintPro app.

The firm employs about 500 people, and plans to hire about 100 more in technology roles, Mahyavanshi said. “Turtlemint has pioneered a new model that is not only bringing new agents into the insurance domain but is also helping them become more productive and effective with their customers by making them digitally savvy," said Harshjit Sethi, principal, Sequoia Capital India Advisors.

It last raised an undisclosed amount in 2016 from Nexus and Blume Ventures.

“The digitization of insurance value chain is a huge opportunity and benefits all the participants—customers by providing access to the right products, agents through significant business growth and productivity, and insurers through improved transparency," Anup Gupta, managing director, Nexus Venture Partners said in a statement.

With the fundraise, Turtlemint is the latest entrant to a club of well-funded online insurance startups, led by Policybazaar, which became a unicorn, i.e. worth over a billion dollars last year. Coverfox, an insurance aggregator, and Acko, which focuses on automobile insurance, are some of the other startups in the sector.

Digital incumbent Paytm also provides an option to buy insurance, and acts as a payment mechanism for existing insurance policies.

While Amazon invested $12 million in Acko in May, Coverfox raised $22 million in April, led by International Finance Corp., and existing investor Transamerica.

“We have seen the company (Turtlemint) grow from initial days and seen their efforts to transform the selling & buying of insurance between an agent and customer. Blume ventures foresees a great contribution of Turtlemint to the insurance ecosystem through their technology innovation" Ashish Fafadia, Partner, Blume Ventures said in the note.