According to media reports, Go Digit Insurance, a private digital insurance company based in Bengaluru, will file its initial public offering (IPO) Draft Red Herring Prospectus this week.
Founded by Kamesh Goyal in 2016, Go Digit Insurance is mainly backed by an Ontario-based holding company, Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited. Fairfax is currently being headed by Indian Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa, who is also the founder of the holdings.
According to a report by CNBC TV, Go Digit Insurance is planning to raise 5000 crore rupees through the issuance of 15% of equity shares in the company.
The company plans to raise 1250 crore via IPO and 3750 crores through an offer for sale.
The company, which was managing finances through internal funding by Kamesh Goyal and Fairfax, shifted gears in 2021 when it took its first external funding by raising 84 million dollars from investors such as A91 Partners, Faering Capital and TVS Capital.
The first external funding took the company’s overall valuation from 350 million dollars to 870 million dollars.
Few months later, in 2021, the then Indian cricket team captain, Virat Kohli, and Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma invested nearly 2.5 cores in the insurance company. In return, the insurance startup allotted to the duo 3.33 lakh equity shares in the company.
Apart from Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma, entities such as Cornerstone Sport LLP, UBR Capital, Vahdam Tea, OTO Capital, and Fyre Energy Booster invested together around 1 crore rupees in Go Digit Insurance.
The insurance company had, earlier on July 18, announced the launch of ‘Pay as you Drive’ (PAYD) add-on feature for motor insurance Own Damage (OD) policies. The Indian cricketer Virat Kohli and actor Anushka Sharma backed company become country’s first insurers to introduce the feature.
This feature enable the customers who drive less to pay the company had said in a press release. Anyone driving less than 10,000 kilometres per year on an average will be eligible to avail the discount.