Sachin Bansal’s Navi is struggling in insurance

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Editor's note: In February 2020, Sachin Bansal’s Navi Technologies completed the acquisition of DHFL General Insurance from the beleaguered Wadhawan group for around Rs 120 crore. It took the Flipkart co-founder months to arrive at a mutually agreeable price and to prove to the insurance regulator that he was a competent promoter, before he could walk away with his prized possession: A ready-to-launch general insurance company. The takeover of DHFL General Insurance, renamed Navi General Insurance, was crucial to Bansal’s vision of building India’s first digitally oriented financial services conglomerate. Set up in July 2016, DHFL General Insurance was a relatively new player in the non-life insurance market. The Mumbai-based company sold health, motor and a few other liability-based covers, but its scale of operations was minuscule. In November 2019, when talks between Bansal and the Wadhawan group kicked off, it had a mere 0.1% market share in terms of gross premiums underwritten, the lowest among peers. The acquisition was expected to boost its scale, capital and ambition. General insurance startups Digit and Acko—also founded in 2016—were rapidly gaining market share, and …