NetAmbit InfoSource & e-Services Pvt. Ltd, a financial products distribution company, has raised Rs 50 crore in a second round of funding led by Helion Venture Partners. Bessemer Venture Partners, which invested in the company in 2007, has also participated in this round by investing Rs 10 crore. The funds will be used by NetAmbit to expand into newer markets through diversified distribution channels.
The investment is the first by Helion in the financial services sector. The deal is one of the largest stand alone investment by Helion, said Rahul Chandra, director with Helion in an interview to VCCircle. He added that a distribution business depends on the size and NetAmbit has already achived a good size to expand further. Though the company will continue to focus on the Indian market, it will ontinue to expand its product offering in the future.
The 10-year-old company today claims to be one of India’s largest financial products distribution companies. Noida-based NetAmbit follows a ‘hub and spoke’ model of distribution in the insurance and financial products industry.
NetAmbit plans to use its position in life insurance distribution to cross-sell other financial products such as general insurance, mutual funds and loans. NetAmbit currently has a network of over 3500 workstations, 600 field agents and 105 sales locations.
“We expect the growth trajectory in the financial products distribution business to continue to be steep in the foreseeable future as a larger proportion of household savings migrate from traditional financial savings such as jewellery and bank deposits to those products that reflect modern day risk and return potential," said Chandra, who will join the board of NetAmbit.
Helion will continue to look at investments in the domestic consumption space, said Chandra. The venture capital firm, which has around $350 million under management across two funds, has made a spate of investments since mid 2008 in India's consumption space. These include salon chain YLG Salon & Spa, service apartment firm Hummingbird Suites, vocational training firm Global Talent Track and quick service restaurant firm Brand Calculas.