On a Mission To Simplify Insurance Digit Insurance was formed with an aim to simplify insurance and the entire value chain across products, processes, policy documents and claims
By Shrabona Ghosh •
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"Insurance in India is known to be a complex financial product and a category that lacks transparency. Digit was founded with an aim to simplify insurance and the entire value chain across products, processes, policy documents and claims," said Vijay Kumar, CEO, Digit Insurance.
The company is leveraging technology to ensure a seamless customer journey by offering products with real benefits. "Over the last four years, we have used analytics, technology and AI and ML to identify and address various customer pain points."
India has seen a plethora of fintech companies being launched over the past few years and many have become successful Unicorns in a short span of time. "Tech is a great enabler for any business, but tech alone can't be the sole recipe to success. You need other ingredients like a great team, innovative products, understanding of the market and the zeal to transform the space. India is one of the most dynamic economies with a diverse demography and there is immense scope to cater to the masses and scale any business exponentially."
Digit aims at making customer onboarding processes extremely simple and hassle-free. "We believe, just creating a sophisticated process is not enough. It needs to be easy enough for customers to use."
"We are aiding our partners through our Partner App which allows them to create their own digital stores. To ensure that our customers are served seamlessly, we have been moving towards a self-service model. For car insurance policies, we have set up an automated pre-inspection process where customers can capture and submit photographs and receive an approval or rejection quickly. This is being done for 10-15 per cent of cases so far and will increase with time."
The company is scaling up claims and service requests on WhatsApp to reduce overall call volumes. As of February, this year, they have serviced 9,22,045 customer requests via WhatsApp. "Further, being 100 per cent on Cloud gives us the competitive advantage of using technology across processes and verticals in a much efficient manner."
The insurance industry has witnessed significant transformation in the last five to six years where insurers and the regulator have worked together to protect customers' interests. Many insurtech players have emerged in the last few years and the regulator, too, has embraced innovative solutions adopted by these companies. IRDAI is focused on catering to the needs and interests of the customers and any initiative that aims to serve this has always been supported by the regulator. "IRDAI's sandbox regulation is a good example that has helped companies like ours to quickly bring innovative products to the market. Our biggest success story is the launch of India's first Covid-19 health insurance products which saw tremendous demand," said Kumar.
Insurance is still largely underpenetrated in India and the company wants to change that. "Our focus will be on expanding the reach of our products in tier-II and tier-III cities. Additionally, we will look at increasing our market share and explore newer lines of businesses as we go along. This will help us expand our portfolio and further accelerate our growth."
Factsheet:
Amount of funding received – INR 2,189 crore as on 31st Dec 2021
Year of inception - 2017
Number of employees – Over 2500 as on 31st Dec 2021
Number of app downloads – 1,00,000+
Turnover – INR 3,649 crore gross written premium between April and Dec, 2021
