Advertisement

Digit Insurance Clocks $400 Mn In Annual Premiums

The company grew by 44 per cent with a premium of INR 3,243 crore (as of March 2021), while the overall industry growth was about five per cent last year.

Go Digit General Insurance, a Bengaluru-based general insurance company offering health, motor and travel insurance, announced that it has clocked USD 400 million in annual premiums and served over 2 crore customers since its inception in 2017. The company has been one of the fastest among private general insurers to achieve this milestone, despite the challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic.

In the wake of the pandemic, the company’s group health business grew by 11 times to INR 170 crore. “The pandemic was a testing time for the entire world. Insurance for many was a financial cushioning and for others a wake-up call to seek a robust health insurance cover,” said Kamesh Goyal, Chairman and Founder, Digit Insurance. The company also sold 79,536 health policies and insured 42.5 lakh lives between March 2020 and September 2021. 

The company grew by 44 per cent with a premium of INR 3,243 crore (as of March 2021), while the overall industry growth was about five per cent last year. In the first half of FY21-22, the company recorded Gross Written Premium at INR 2,196 crore versus INR 1,312 crore in the first two quarters of FY20-21, a growth of 67%.  

The insurer that sold its first policy in October 2017 managed to register profits on IFRS basis in just three years and entered the unicorn club in January 2021. Currently valued at $3.5 billion, Digit captured the market share by serving customers through multiple tech-enabled processes. Its motor insurance market share grew from 1.32% in FY19 to 2.89% in FY21.   “We have simplified retail insurance documents in a way that even 15-year-old kids can understand our policies. We have structured our products by embedding benefits that people really need which can actually help them make claims when the need arises,” said Goyal.

KEY MILESTONES

• Sold 55.4 lakh policies and saw a premium growth of 44% in FY21. 

• Achieved a combined ratio of 113.3 per cent for H1FY22 (on IFRS basis).

• Turned profitable on IFRS basis in three years into operations.

• Expected solvency at 300% post closure of funding round, subject to IRDAI approval.

• Market share in motor business grew to 2.89% in FY2021 from 1.32% in FY2019.

“When we started Digit four years ago with a mission to simplify insurance, we couldn’t fathom how powerful the word ‘simple’ could be. With over 2 crore customers today, and our partners and investors trusting us, we realize that the industry was and still is in the need for transparency and honesty. With technology on our side, our goal is to keep innovating and scaling up the self-service modules we have created, which will further simplify processes for our customers,” said Goyal.

The cloud-based company has used technology to fasten various insurance processes and has managed to make the entire journey paperless. The company’s tech-driven approach also helped its employees to transition seamlessly to work from home mode during the pandemic. The insurer has piloted an automated pre-inspection process for instant approval for motor insurance claims. It has an in-house AI bot Aria to better serve its partners and has also managed to reduce overall call volumes by using other channels such as WhatsApp where it has serviced over 6 lakh requests so far.

Motor, health, fire and travel insurance continue to be Digit’s top businesses. It also has one of the best-in-class turnaround time (TAT) for claims. The average TAT for COVID-19 Cashless Claims (pre-authorisation) in the last six months was 44 minutes.


Tags assigned to this article:
Digit General Insurance COVID-19 Pandemic

Around The World

Advertisement