The present decade has been witnessing the growth and popularity of Policy Bazaar, a fintech company based in India. But amidst the COVID pandemic of 2020-21, True North, the investment company who backed the stakes of Policy Bazaar has decided to sell its share to five different Indian companies- Ashoka India Equity Investment Trust PLC, IIFL Special Opportunities Fund Series 8, Triumph Global Holdings Pte, India Acorn Fund, and Serum Institute of India, Pune.
Among the five companies, the Adar Poonawalla lead vaccine manufacturing company Serum Institute of India, Pune holds the utmost importance as a rumour saying “Serum Institute of India buys Policy Bazaar” has been doing rounds in the Indian market.
As per the news, the Serum Institute of India, Pune has only bought a minority stake in the first offering of the Policy Bazaar IPO. Although the deal was done confidentially and the intricate details were not disclosed to the media, the chief executive of Policy Bazaar has notified the media that the True North investment company has supported them for a long time and they respect their trust.
Even though True North has sold most of its shares to the five companies, they are still an investor to Policy Bazaar. As the Serum Institute of India buys Policy Bazaar along with four other companies, the Policy Bazaar administration welcomes the new stakeholders and adds them to the family.
The Aftermath
At present, Policy Bazaar is backed by companies like Tiger Global Management, SoftBank’s Vision Fund, and Tencent Holdings. In the last financial year, PolicyBazaar was estimated to be worth $3.5 billion.
In 2021, Policy Bazaar is planning to open its shares for the public. The public will soon be able to buy from Policy Bazaar IPO. A partner at True North, Divya Sehgal, has reacted as Serum Institute of India buys Policy Bazaar. According to her, True North is particularly happy with the performance of Policy Bazaar in the last few years as they have gained significantly from the sustainable growth of PolicyBazaar.
But as the company is going to open it for public markets in the coming months, True North will still be an investor in Policy Bazaar. It is not the first time for Adar Poonawalla to show interest in fintech companies. Poonawalla lead Serum Institute of India Pune has also bought a significant number of stakes in Non-Banking Financial Company Magma Fincorp for ₹3,450 crores in the last February.
Serum Institute of India Pune has also bought a start-up company called Capital Float to pay up its debt of ₹500 crores. There is no doubt that Poonawalla is going to make its presence clear among the fintech giants of India very soon. As Serum Institute of India buys Policy Bazaar, it already possesses about ₹1500 crore in assets under management.
In April 2019, Adar Poonawalla also started an investment company himself named Poonawalla Finance as a part of Cyrus Poonawalla Group. Even before buying stakes in Policy Bazaar IPO, it was already worth $9.8 billion and has bagged many successful deals.
What is the Serum Institute Of India?
The Serum Institute of India, Pune is a pharmaceuticals and biotechnology company based in India. The company was founded in the Indian city of Pune in 1966 with the objective of producing immuno-biologicals to fight diseases like Tetanus, Diphtheria, Mumps, Hepatitis-B, and Measles among others.
Before the Serum Institute of India, Pune began producing these immuno-biologicals they were imported to India at exorbitant prices. The first products that this company produced in large quantities were the snake antivenoms, the tetanus antitoxin, the MMR vaccine, and the DPT vaccine.
The Serum Institute of India, Pune then extended their product lines to include a wide range of vaccines, like the influenza vaccine, the combination vaccines, the meningococcal vaccines, and vaccines against viral and bacterial infections, along with other products like blood plasma, hormone products, and antisera.
At present, the Serum Institute of India, Pune is recognized as the largest producer of vaccines in the world, based on the number of produced doses. The company yearly manufactures approximately 1.5 billion doses of various vaccines.
Vaccines produced by this company have been used by various international organizations like the WHO and UNICEF. The Serum Institute of India, Pune had invented an anti-rabies agent called the Rabies Human Monoclonal Antibody in 2016, which is also known as the Rabishield, with assistance from MassBiologics, a division of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, US.
The company, which is presently run by the Poonawalla group, now engages itself in the production and development of vaccines while also focusing on extensive research. The products manufactured by the Serum Institute of India, Pune now include a large number of vaccines for the childhood vaccination schedule like Tubervac and Poliovac.
The company has also entered into agreements with Novavax and Codagenix for the production of the COVID-19 vaccines developed by them.
What is Policy Bazaar?
An Indian insurance broker with approval from the IRDA of India, Policy bazaar is a platform, which makes buying insurance policies easy and hassle-free for the common people.
It is an online Insurance Web Aggregator which alleviates uncertainties and obstacles by gathering information regarding all insurance plans and policies on a single web page so that you do not have to move from one place to another.
Policy bazaar, therefore, helps you in finding out the various insurance plans and determining which suits you the best, online. With the help of Policy bazaar, you can thus find which insurance plan is the best for your health, life, two-wheeler, four-wheeler term, and others.
Policy Bazaar IPO Coming Soon!
Policy bazaar, which is now recognized as a global fintech enterprise and the foremost aggregator of insurance policies in India, has reached its break-even point in as little a span as 8 years, but still continues to show prominent growth every year.
With over eight million buyers and more than forty insurers, Policy bazaar claims to sell over one lakh twenty thousand insurance policies every month. The platform is all set to file a draft prospectus for its initial public offering in Mumbai by the next month.
The opening of the Policy bazaar IPO for the public has been estimated to raise over five hundred million dollars. According to information confirmed by trusted sources, Policy bazaar is seeking a listing before 2021 comes to an end.
The Policy bazaar IPO, which would value the company at an estimated worth of more than 3.5 billion dollars would bring in new stocks from new shareholders, along with securing secondary shares from the existing shareholders.
Since discussions and deliberations have not yet been closed, the details regarding the timing and size of the Policy bazaar IPO can be expected to change.
Since the board of directors of Policy bazaar are yet to approve the opening of the Policy bazaar IPO, present investors like the SoftBank group are yet to comment on the probable changes in their roles.
After the Policy bazaar IPO, which would make it possible for the public to invest in the company, Policy bazaar can be expected to become one of India’s first mega start-ups going public in 2021.
Zomato, the online food delivery chain and Nykaa, the online beauty and personal care delivery chain are among the Indian companies that are next in line for offering their IPOs after the Policy Bazaar offers its IPO.
