Digit Insurance gets IRDAI nod to raise $84 million from three growth equity investors

Digit Insurance has received approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDAI) to raise $84 million from three growth equity investors ― A91 Partners, Faering Capital and TVS Capital. This combined investment would take Digit’s total funding to $224 million.

The new-age Bengaluru-headquartered insurance start-up, backed by one of the world’s largest financial services groups ― Fairfax Financial Holdings, has previously raised $140 million in two rounds of funding.

In addition to the investments by the three institutions, Digit employees numbering over 70 have invested over $4.34 million as part of this round, a company release said.

Talking to BusinessLine over phone, Kamesh Goyal, Founder - Chairman of Digit Insurance, said, “No insurance company has raised this much funds within the first three years of business. We are glad to have earned the trust of five million (50 lakh) customers in just two years of operations, achieved close to $300 million of annualised premium and 1.2 per cent market share of the overall general insurance industry in India.”

Asia Insurance Review, Singapore, recently acknowledged Digit as the ‘General Insurance Company of the Year 2019’.

“The fund has been raised from a solvency perspective and not from the money requirement perspective,” he said.

To a query on the general insurance industry’s growth, he said, “The sector witnessed phenomenal growth for five years between 2014 and 2019. But towards the end of last year (from December 2019 onwards), the growth rates had started to slide. It would be difficult to say when this would bounce back.”

“Certain segments are registering growth slowdown, pricing pressure is there, but there is nothing extraordinary,” he added.

The company is expecting to double its growth target during the current year, Goyal said.