FSD Africa is betting big on the future of insurance in Africa, unveiling a 25 to 30 million US dollar venture fund at the BimaLab Africa Insurtech Summit in Nairobi. The Inclusive Insurtech Investment Fund, or 3iF, is set to back early-stage startups using tech to make insurance more accessible, affordable, and relevant\u2014especially in health, climate resilience, and financial inclusion.<\/p>\n
The need is urgent. Most African countries have insurance penetration below three percent, leaving people, small businesses, and farmers exposed when disaster strikes. In 2022 alone, around 80 percent of economic losses from natural disasters went uninsured, up from 58 percent in 2021. For millions, protection is still out of reach.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s where BimaLab comes in. Since 2020, the accelerator has helped 135 startups across 28 countries, providing support, regulatory guidance, and a route to scale. Elias Omondi, Principal of Innovation for Resilience at FSD Africa, said: \u201cBimaLab helps startups de-risk innovation and bring insurance to the millions who\u2019ve been left unprotected for too long.\u201d<\/p>\n
The summit also unveiled a new Regulatory Sandbox Eligibility Assessment Toolkit, aimed at helping regulators figure out the real-world impact of new insurtech models. Godfrey Kiptum, chief executive of Kenya\u2019s Insurance Regulatory Authority, called it \u201ca game-changer for building a resilient, inclusive insurance ecosystem across Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n
3iF combines catalytic funding from FSD Africa Investments with senior equity from commercial and strategic investors led by Zep Re. The fund will support BimaLab alumni and other promising ventures, providing the growth capital needed to scale solutions fast.<\/p>\n
Kenyan micro-insurer Turaco offered a glimpse of what\u2019s possible. Chief executive Ted Pantone said the company now serves over one million clients across Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana, processing more than 20,000 claims\u2014all with guidance and support from BimaLab.<\/p>\n
Over two days, the summit showed how private investment, technology, and smart regulation can come together to tackle Africa\u2019s insurance gap\u2014and finally get millions covered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FSD Africa is betting big on the future of insurance in Africa, unveiling a 25 to 30 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317298,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[28,158],"class_list":{"0":"post-317297","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entrepreneurship","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-entrepreneurship"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317297\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317298"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}