Digit Insurance

Digit is a digitally-focused general insurance startup - currently focused on auto, travel, property, mobile, shop, and health - based in Bangalore. The startup also offers a protection plan for stretches between one and 180 days. The protection covers burglary of contents, including appliances, gadgets and jewellery, as well as damage caused by natural disasters and fire.

In 2018, the venture partnered with Cleartrip to provide travel insurance for their customers. Digit can auto-detect when a flight is to delayed by more than 75 minutes and enables users to make a claim through just a photograph of their boarding pass.

The following year, Digit partnered with digital lending startup, Zest, to offer insurance against EMIs to its 5 million customer base. The partnership enables Zest customers to be relieved of the debt if they are not able to repay because of unforeseen circumstances, such as hospitalisation, death or permanent disability.

Founder & Chairman Kamesh Goyal had previously spent almost two decades as part of Allianz Insurance. Most recently he served as Head of H8 – Asset Management and US Life Insurance at Allianz Asset Management.

Digit is backed by Fairfax, which has 45% ownership. In 2018, Digit acquired ITI Reinsurance, taking a 100% stake in the private reinsurance company.

In January 2020 Digit Insurance announced it had raised $84m in investment from A91 Partners, Faering Capital and TVS Capital. The company plans to use the new capital on customer acquisition (Digit currently has 5m customers) and scaling the company.

In January 2021 Digit Insurance became a Unicorn after raising an undisclosed amount of funding from existing investors, and claiming growth of almost 32% in 2020.

In July Digit announced it was raising $200m in funding, valuing the company at $3.5bn.

In April 2022 Digit announced it had reached Rs 5,000 crore in GWP in FY 2021-22, and reported a growth of 62%, led mainly by its motor, property and health lines.

In June 2022 Digit, part of the Fairfax Group, revealed it was looking to launch a reinsurance entity, which would make it only the second Indian reinsurance company if approved by regulators. The company said it was ready to inject roughly $52m into the reinsurer, roughly double the required minimum. If given the go-ahead, Digit would get second priority (behind current sole domestic reinsurer GIC) for right of refusal to provide quotes, with the chance to match that of GIC, and also give Fairfax a foothold in the Indian reinsurance market.

In September 2022 it was revealed that Mumbai-based Axis Bank was said to be in talks with Go Digit Life Insurance over acquiring a 10% stake in the startup worth $9M, valuing Go Digit's prospective life insurance business at $90M. The announcement follows a similar headline last week, which saw HDFC also announce investment plans of a similar size into Go Digit Life Insurance. The latest move is part of Axis' strategy to grow its presence in the insurance sector. The acquisition is also said to enable Axis to ‘improve outreach to insurance customers with its own banking offerings’ - the company already offers some insurance products through a partnership with another insurer, Max Financial.