It was the first company in Switzerland to offer an insurance against risks of transport by land, river, and sea.

Three years later, the private insurance company Helvetia Feuer was established in St Gallen.

[11] Over the course of its history, Helvetia expanded into all five continents and thereby laid the foundation for its business activities outside of Switzerland.

[12] In Austria, the history of Helvetia goes back to the establishment of Der Anker, Gesellschaft von Lebens- und Rentenversicherung in 1858.

Helvetia Unfall took the name of its travel insurance subsidiary Elvia (now part of Allianz Global Assistance).

One year later, Helvetia Insurance in Switzerland branched out to include the accident, liability and motor vehicle sectors.

As a result, the Swiss Association of Raiffeisenbanken became a new shareholder in the Helvetia Patria Group with a two percent share.

[21] In Austria, Der Anker, Gesellschaft von Lebens- und Rentenversicherung became a wholly owned subsidiary in 1993.

[22] In Italy, Helvetia Patria took over Nordstern Danni[23] in 1998 and acquired Norwich Union Vita[24] in 2001.

[25] In Spain, at the end of 1998, Helvetia Patria acquired the northern Spanish La Vasco Navarra LVN, a medium-sized all-sector company.

For this acquisition, Helvetia increased its stake in Nationale Suisse to more than 98 per cent and then initiated the procedure to declare the remaining shares void.

[43] In the same year, the company founded Helvetia Asset Management AG, through which it sold services and investments in the real estate sector.

In 2022, Helvetia Group entered into a partnership with Migros Bank for the sale of car insurance.

[47][48] Via the subsidiary Medicall AG, Helvetia Group coordinates the evacuation of accidents and the towing of the Canton Basel-Landschaft.

[52] The board of directors has ten members and Thomas Schmuckli was elected as chairman at the General Assembly in April 2022.

In the countries of Austria, Germany, Italy, and Spain, which are summarised in the Europe segment, Helvetia is organised in national companies.

[3][48] In the Specialty Markets segment, Helvetia offers insurance for art, engineering and transport, as well as active reinsurance worldwide.

To this end, Helvetia has branches in Miami for the Latin American and in Singapore for the Asian markets.

[53][54] In addition, the group generates income from the service business in the real estate sector via Helvetia Asset Management AG.

[57][58] Helvetia also supports projects in neighbouring European countries, such as the Cross-Country Skiing World Cup.

[62] The award provides the opportunity to exhibit at the LISTE Art Fair Basel and prize money of 15,000 francs.

[64][65] Helvetia is a member of the ceo4climate initiative – an energy and climate policy campaign by Swiss business associations.