Discovery Limited

Discovery Limited engages in long and short-term insurance, asset management, savings, investment and employee benefits through its various brands. The Group has subsidiaries in South Africa, the United Kingdom, the United States, China, Singapore, and Australia.

Discovery Limited launched in 1992 and was initially a specialist risk insurance company with the support of Rand Merchant Bank. Now Discovery provide a range of solutions for individuals and businesses and is an innovator in healthcare, wellness, insurance, investments, financial and life planning.

Discovery was founded and is headquartered in South Africa, but is a global company with health, life and short term insurance operations in South Africa and the United Kingdom, and a presence in Germany, France, the United States, Canada, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, China and Japan through their Global Vitality Network. To date, Discover covers 5.1m clients.

One of its flagship products is its Vitality programme, which is both a platform to incentivise people to live healthier lives as well as a channel through which shared value is delivered. The Vitality Shared-Value Insurance model has received international recognition, including being ranked 17th in Fortune’s index of 51 companies “changing the world” in August 2015, and named a leading health innovator at the World Economic Forum in January 2017.

Discovery announced the launch of “the world’s first behavioural bank” in March 2019. It aims to address financial risk by following the "5-3-80" model of financial health – five controllable behaviours of spending more than we earn, not saving regularly, not having insurance in place, not paying off property and not investing for the long term. This then in turn presents three key risks of unaffordable debt, exposure to unexpected expenses or loss of income, and insufficient income in retirement – all of which result in 80% of events where individuals are unable to meet their financial obligations.

Discovery Bank also uses dynamic interest rates that are linked to financial behaviours of customers, enabling them to earn more interest on savings and pay less interest on credit as they improve their financial behaviour with Vitality Money.

Other branches of Discovery Limited include Discovery Life, the Discovery Foundation, Destiny Health, the Vitality group, and Discovery Finance.

The company's financial report from 2018 saw positive performance across all key business metrics, including normalised operating profit – up 17% from prior year to £477m; new business – up 10% to £931m; and embedded value – up 15% to £3.79bn.

As well as strong financial performance, the period was characterised by rapid expansion and diversification of product-lines, with the Group launching a number of new initiatives including VitalityInvest in the UK. The Group also entered the Japanese life insurance market through a new partnership with Sumitomo Life.

In February 2022 it was revealed that Discovery Health will partner with Dubai-based AIA Group to launch a new joint health startup business, Amplify Health, which will operate in Asia, excluding China, Hong Kong and Macau. Discovery will own 25% of the JV's equity with AIA owning the remaining balance. Amplify Health will focus on improving operational and claims processes for AIA, and will help it focus on the ageing population in Asia.