Ruchi Deepak: An Insurtech Wizard With Acko, Ruchi and her co-founder Varun Dua aim to transform customer insurance experiences by harnessing the technological potential

Ruchi Deepak , co-founder, Acko, grew up in Jamshedpur and did her bachelor's from Lady Shri Ram College and Law from Delhi University. She started her career as a lawyer and worked for a few years in the investments, financial services, and venture capital space in India, observing the intricate workings of the industry. She also worked with companies like Matrix Partners and Franklin Templeton Investments, advising on some of the most sophisticated financing, exits, IPOs, and strategic matters across sectors.

However, it was her long-standing dream to build a company known for its culture and empathy towards its employees and customers. "I always wanted to create something synonymous with meaningful innovation in the financial services space. In my corporate tenure, I observed that financial services companies were selling to distributors and not to customers directly, leading to a lot of misselling," she says.

With Acko, she and her co-founder Varun Dua aimed to harness the technological potential to transform customer insurance experiences and offer innovative, tech-enabled solutions that adequately address the problems associated with traditional insurance. "We are delighted with what we have built but have a long way to solve for insurance for Indian customers," she says.

ACKO, which has raised a total funding amount of $450 million to date, is a technology-first insurance company with its products made directly available to consumers through a digital platform. The company's process is designed with an aim to provide a better customer experience and to eliminate the pain points associated with the traditional model, offering a seamless journey that requires zero paperwork, from purchase and claims to renewals.

The insurtech unicorn also offers customer-oriented, bite-sized products in collaboration with 35+ prominent players in the internet ecosystem, such as Ola, OYO, redBus, Zomato, HDB Financial Services.

Talking about gender equality, Ruchi says that she believes in being an inclusive and equal opportunity employer. "At ACKO, we believe in hiring the right person for the right role and not discriminate on the basis of gender, caste or sexual orientation. We believe in inclusivity and respect diversity of backgrounds and opinions that help us in solving the most complex business challenges," she says.

Ruchi has some big plans for the year such as launching the company's retail health insurance offering, doubling its current customer count of 2 million over the next three years and strengthening product service integrations with more primary care providers and across garages and workshops. And, when Ruchi is not thinking about business, one of her favorite things to do is spend time with her family. She also catches up on movies from across the world and finds swimming a great way to unwind.