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After selling stake in ICICI Lombard General Insurance, Canada-based billionaire Prem Watsa’s Fairfax Holdings is promoting a tech-driven startup general insurance company Digit. Watsa has partnered Kamesh Goyal, a former Allianz executive who led the German insurer’s business in India.
The new Bengaluru-headquartered company’s team is a blend of insurance and e-commerce executives. Those with an insurance background are largely from Bajaj Allianz. They include Vijay Kumar, V Philip and Jasleen Kaur who were in the top management of Bajaj Allianz.
From the e-commerce side, the company has Sandeep Komaravelly, who was part of Snapdeal, and Sriram Shankar, who was vice president (customer experience) at Myntra. The chief technology officer is from a telecom firm.
The company, which has already received preliminary approvals from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), will start with a paid-up capital of Rs 385 crore. Fairfax Holdings will control 45% of the firm while the balance will be held by Indian investors led by Goyal, who will be chairman of the bank.
Fairfax was the co-founder of ICICI Lombard. However, the Canadian group sold last month a little over 12% stake in the joint venture to Warburg Pincus and other private equity investors. Subsequently, it announced that it will be further diluting stake in the proposed initial public offering of the general insurance firm.
Speaking to TOI, Komaravelly said that the plan is to launch within the next 6-12 weeks, subject to final approvals from IRDAI. “We want to bring about a change in insurance. The differentiation is from the point of view of making the entire experience for the customer seamless,” he said.
Incidentally, another tech-driven startup insurance company Acko General Insurance, which recently raised $30 million in seed capital, will also be headquartered in Bengaluru. Acko is promoted by the founders of online insurance distributor Coverfox.
