Turaco Insurtech Raises $10M in Series A Funding

A leading African insurtech startup, Turaco announced the close of a $10 million Series A equity round. The round was led by AfricInvest, via the Cathay AfricInvest Innovation Fund, and existing investor, Novastar Ventures.

The round also included participation from Enza Capital, Global Partnerships, Zephyr Acorn, Operator Stack, Asi Ventures Limited, and Push Ventures.

Founded in 2019, Turaco is a distributor, broker, and key customer interface between the underwriter and the end consumer. The insurtech company’s mission is to free people from the fear of financial shocks caused by unexpected health risks.

Turaco is able to achieve this through a B2B and B2B2C business model, forming partnerships with top tech-enabled companies with a large pool of customers or staff in emerging markets, including some of the continent’s most trusted brands such as Sun King, One Acre Fund, Tugende, M-KOPA and VisionFund. Through its active partnerships, the insurtech has designed and delivered a suite of bespoke medical, life, asset, and vehicle insurance packages that have already covered over half a million lives across Nigeria, Kenya, and Uganda.

Targeted at underserved customers and low-income earners, Turaco embeds its service as a white-labeled offering that is bundled with a partner’s core product or service while integrating with their existing payment processes to collect premiums. With a robust API integration which allows for easy collaboration with its external partners, Turaco enables companies to integrate insurance into their products and services efficiently and at no additional risk or cost.

For example, in 2019, Turaco partnered with M-KOPA, a fintech platform that provides digital financial services to underbanked customers, to embed insurance with M-KOPA’s products for the company’s customers and direct sales representatives. Now active in three countries, insurance is used to drive revenue, as well as customer and agent retention and resiliency.

Since launch, the technology-enabled insurance platform has grown to become a market leader at the forefront of innovative insurance solutions. Turaco products are priced at ~$2/month, with straightforward terms & conditions and a fully digitized claims process that allows claimants to file via WhatsApp or phone call, paying out in less than three days via mobile money.

Commenting on the raise, Turaco CEO and co-founder Ted Pantone said, “We are proud to help drive insurance adoption, especially among low-income earners. 90% of our customers have never had insurance before, but the surprising thing is that people really want to buy insurance! They just don’t have easy access to products that really work for them. This investment enables us to scale our business to serve millions of insurance customers across our current markets and beyond. We are thrilled to have these great new investors join our team for this next season of growth.”

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