HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company

HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company Limited is a 51:49 joint venture firm between HDFC and ERGO International AG. It is one of the insurance entities of the Munich Re Group in Germany operating in the insurance field under the BFSI sector. The retail sector includes various products like health insurance, vehicle insurance, travel insurance, home insurance, personal accident insurance, and cyber insurance. The Corporate sector includes products like liability, marine, and property insurance. Rural sector products include rainfall index insurance, Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, and cattle insurance policy.

History
HDFC Ltd. And ERGO International AG formed a joint venture firm named HDFC ERGO General Insurance Company Limited. ERGO became a 49% stakeholder in the Company in 2015. In June 2019, HDFC announced plans to acquire a 51.2 percent stake in Apollo Munich Health Insurance and later merged it with its general insurance arm, HDFC ERGO.

In 2020, HDFC Ergo Health Insurance( earlier known as Apollo Munich Health Insurance) merged with the company after the receipt of final approval from the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) making it the second-largest private insurer in the accident and health insurance business. With this merger, the company's product suite expanded to over 50 in this segment.

In May 2021, Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC), entered into a share purchase agreement for the sale of 44,12,000 equity shares of Rs. 10 each, representing 0.62% of the issued and paid-up share capital of HDFC ERGO, in accordance with the direction of Reserve Bank of India to reduce its shareholding in the latter to 50% or below, and subsequent to this HDFC ERGO would cease to be a subsidiary company of HDFC.

Technology
The firm's website has an AI-based chatbot DIA which can answer many queries. HDFC ERGO General Insurance has adopted Robotics process automation and voice analytics to improve customer experience. With these technologies, the company claims to process health insurance in 15 minutes and issues Health and Motor Insurance Policies to customers within 5 minutes through digital platforms. A mobile application, the Insurance Portfolio Organiser (IPO) app, has also been built and offers its services based on geo-location. The company is aiming to transform itself into an ‘AI-first company’, wherein over 30% of customer service requests are handled by artificial intelligence (AI) and more than 50% of customers are using the digital platform to avail of any service after becoming policyholders.