 "Narayana Murthy invests in Coverfox while Nandan Nilekani backs Mubble")
The latest start-ups to receive backing from seasoned Infosys entrepreneurs are online insurance portal Coverfox and prepaid mobile account tracker Mubble. N.R. Narayana Murthy’s private investment firm, Catamaran Ventures invested in Coverfox and Nandan Nilekani made a personal investment in Mubble.
ALSO READ: Nilekani invests in mobile product firm Mubble
ALSO READ: Nilekani invests in mobile product firm Mubble
Insurance cover in 5 minutes
The Catamaran investment in Coverfox is part of a series B round of $14 million led by Accel USA, Accel India, and SAIF Partners.
Coverfox helps customers compare insurance prices, buy policies, and navigate the otherwise complicated claims process. According to its website, a customer can get insured in less than 5 minutes. It expects to reach 1 million users by the end of the year.
Coverfox enters the online insurance space at a promising time. Only 3.9% of India’s population is insured, compared to the world average of 6.3%, Varun Dua, CEO of Coverfox, pointed out in an official statement about the funding. According to a report by BCG and Google, three out of four insurance transactions will involve some aspect of the internet by the year 2020.
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Murthy’s $130 million venture capital fund, Catamaran Ventures, has been investing across sectors. Its first bet was on controversial microfinance entity SKS Microfinance. SKS provided financial services to economically disadvantaged borrowers and tanked after having difficulty recovering loans.
Last year, Catamaran entered a joint venture with Amazon Asia in order to help small and medium-sized businesses in India get onto the ecommerce platform
This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here.