Go Digit, an Indian insurance startup, has raised $141 million from dozens of investors as part of an initial public offering starting on Wednesday.
Fidelity, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, Bay Pond, Mirae Asset Management, Steadview Capital and HSBC, as well as Indian mutual funds managed by SBI, ICICI, Axis, Tata and Edelweiss, served as backers for the IPO , Go Digit disclosed in a stock exchange filing.
Founded by Kamesh Goyal, a former KPMG executive and insurance industry veteran, Go Digit sells auto, health, travel and accident insurance. The startup simplifies the process of buying and redeeming insurance by allowing users to self-inspect, submit claims and process service requests from their smartphones. It had a total of about 43 million customers in the nine months ended December last year and had issued a total of 8 million contracts, according to its IPO prospectus.
The Mumbai-based startup aims to raise around $313 million from the IPO. It is seeking a valuation of about $3 billion, which would be about 25% lower than its last private valuation of $4 billion.
Retail investors in India have started warming up to tech startup stocks. Although the country’s benchmark Sensex has risen 1.4 percent this year, many of the tech startups that have gone public in India in recent years have outperformed. Shares of food delivery company Zomato are up 51.2% this year, while insurance aggregator Policy Bazaar is up 60.4%.
Go Digit — backed by Peak XV, Fairfax Group, TVS Capital, A91 Partners and Indian cricket star Virat Kohli — initially sought to go public in 2022 but abandoned that plan citing poor market conditions. It had sought to raise $440 million in the IPO, according to the draft prospectus it filed at the time.
Go Digit is just one of several Indian companies looking to go public this year. Food delivery startup Swiggy also confidentially filed to go public last month, seeking to raise about $1.25 billion in the IPO. Ola Electric filed for an IPO late last year and its bigger sibling giant Ola plans to follow suit later this year.
