Anushka Sharma, Virat Kohli join investor consortium in Digit Insurance

Cricketer Virat Kohli and actor and producer Anushka Sharma have joined cloud-based general insurance company Go Digit General Insurance’s first external financing round.

The company has raised a total of Rs 606.7 ($84.85 million at current exchange rates) from a consortium of investors including A91 Partners, TVS Capital and Faering Capital, according to the company’s latest regulatory filings. A91 and TVS Capital invested Rs 200 crore each. Faering Capital has also invested the same amount through two of its India-focused funds.

Sharma and Kohli invested Rs 50 lakh and Rs 2 crore respectively. Talent management company Cornerstone Sport and venture capital firm UBR Capital also participated in this round, putting in Rs 1 crore each. 

Cornerstone, founded by Bunty Sajdeh, represents some of India’s top cricketers including Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, and Ajinkya Rahane.

Bijan Kumar Mohanty, business process head at Digit General Insurance and Kapil Joshi, whose identity couldn't immediately be learned, contributed to the round with Rs 2 crore and Rs 20 lakh each.

The funding round values Go Digit General Insurance, which owns new-age non-life insurance platform Digit Insurance, at $765 million.

Last month, the company had received approval from IRDAI (the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India) to raise the amount.

Prior to this round, Bengaluru-headquartered Digit had raised $140 million from Canadian billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Financial Holdings, which will be diluting less than 10% equity for the current round, Kamesh Goyal, founder of Digit Insurance told TechCircle. Fairfax holds close to 45% equity in the company.

Digit was founded in 2017 and claims to command 1.2% of the general insurance market share. 

The insurance platform was founded by industry veteran Kamlesh Goyal, who was working with Germany’s Allianz prior to establishing the startup. While Goyal functions as Digit’s chairman, former Bajaj Allianz General Insurance president Vijay Kumar is its chief executive officer and principal officer.

The company provides insurance services for several product verticals, including several types of automobiles, health and employee health, travel, home, shop and consumer good insurance. Some of the companies it has partnered with include Flipkart, Paytm, Cleartrip, PolicyBazaar and Tanishq, among others, for products related to mobile phones and flight delays.

The insure-technology space has gained traction over the past few months. In December, online insurance platform Toffee Insurance secured $5.5 million in a Series A round.

Digit competitor Acko General Insurance raised $20 million from Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal.

In January 2019, Sequoia led a $25 million round in insurance platform, Turtlemint.