IPO-bound Digit’s old-school path to creating a new-age insurance company

After the likes of Paytm, Policybazaar, and Zomato, it’s now Bengaluru- headquartered insurance startup Digit’s turn to go public. In a recent filing, the Fairfax-backed company has filed for an expected Rs 5,000 crore public listing, through which it is expected to raise around Rs 1,250 crore of fresh money. Digit’s last valuation in the private market stood at $4 billion or around Rs 31,000 crore.

Despite only being founded in 2016, Digit already boasts a market share of over 80% in India’s digital insurance space and accounts for 2.5% of premiums written by India’s general insurers. And with its gross written premiums growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52.9% over the last three fiscal years— touching Rs 5,268 crore in the year ended March 2022—Digit is no longer being compared to its tech peers. Instead, it’s counted among the mainstream general insurance companies in the country.

Digit has managed all of this by leveraging the best of the online and offline worlds. Its approach has been to keep its distribution largely offline, while using technology to make its internal systems smooth and reduce its cost of operations