The current Indian cricket team captain is making buzz in another wealth related news. Virat Kohli backed Unicorn Startup ‘Digit’ is now valued at a whopping $3.5 billion after receiving fresh funding from Sequoia and other investing platforms. For the unversed, Digit is a fintech startup that’s backed by A91 Partners, TVS Capital Funds and of course, the Indian cricket team captain, Virat Kohli.
Details
On July 2, Insurance fintech startup Digit Insurance announced raising $200 million from a plethora of investors which includes Sequoia Capital, IIFL Alternate Asset Manager and more. Further, Faering Capital, the existing investor in the startup, also took part in the funding round.
With the current funding round, Digit Insurance’s total funding has surged to a staggering $552 million and its current valuation has touched the $3.5 billion mark. The company had made a lot of buzz in the Indian startup circuit after it had raised $18 billion at a valuation of $1.9 billion. The company after the funding round was included into India’s very own growing unicorn club. For the uninitiated, a Unicorn is a startup that through its course of fundings, is valued at $1 billion or more.
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Digit Insurance – Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Founding in 2017, October, Digit Insurance is a Bengaluru based startup that provides customized insurance policies on health, auto, life, smartphones, properties and more. Like several startups in India, Digit too went about growing its business during the COVID-19 pandemic and despite the pandemic induced lockdown. The company turned crisis into opportunity and offered new policy products such as fixed insurance benefit for COVID-19. The company is also backed by the Centre’s Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority’s (IRDAI) sandbox initiative.
In the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the company turned its Illness Insurance product into its flagship products. The policy offers protection against not only the COVID-19 virus, but also seven diseases like dengue, chikungunya, encephalitis, zika virus, filariasis ala azar and malaria.
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Digit Insurance’s Growth and Numbers
Digit has seen quite an exponential growth – 44% – since its founding. The company grew with a Rs. 3,243 crores premium in the Financial Year 2021. The company also claims to have a customer base of over 2 crores and has already processed over 4 lakh insurance claims. Meanwhile, the future projects for the company too looks interesting. The company claims that in the ongoing financial year, its total premium or the GWP (gross weighted premium) has grown by 70% in April 2021, compared to the 17% of the current general industry.
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Other Famous Cricketers that turned Investors
It should be noted that Virat Kohli is not the rare cricketer that has turned an investor of a high-profile tech startups. Several Indian cricketers like Ajinkya Rahane, Gautam Gambhir, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and 1983 World Cup winning team’s captain Kapil Dev have had their fingers inside the startup world.
Ajinkya Rahane has invested an undisclosed amount in Mahindra-backed agristartup MeraKisan. Cricketer turned politician Gautam Gambhir is an investor in a healthtech startup called FYI Health. Meanwhile, World Cup winner Kapil Dev has interestingly invested in a deeptech startup and a cab aggregator VAAO.
Meanwhile, captain cool, Mahendra Singh Dhoni has invested an undisclosed amount in Cars24, the car price aggregator platform and the ledger book app Khatabook.
