Turaco a micro-insurance startup has announced the close of a Ksh. 218 Million seed funding round to further grow the business and scale its operations in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The round was led by Novastar Ventures, with participation from Mercy Corps Ventures, Musha Ventures, GAN Ventures and Zephyr Acorn, as well as some angel investors who were already invested in Turaco. The funding comes a year after the company’s last raise of US$1.2 million in seed capital.
Founded in 2018, Turaco is a micro-insurance business that partners with local companies and mobile lending organisations to provide simple and affordable medical cover to underserved and unserved communities.
The startup currently has operations in in Kenya and Uganda and offers life and health insurance products. The products are distributed through partnerships, with its offering based on a subscription model where consumers can opt in for automated medical policy renewals bundled with their existing payments, like bank loans or ride-hailing services. So far they have insured over 70,000 people and seen almost 2,000 claims paid in an average turnaround time of less than three working days.
The startup has indicated that it will use the funding to drive growth in its current locations of Kenya and Uganda, and facilitate expansion into a third market next year. The financial support will also facilitate development of the next stage of Turaco’s proprietary technology and recruitment of key hires to position the business for continued growth in 2021.
Turaco co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) Ted Pantone, had this to say, “We are thrilled to partner with Novastar Ventures and all of our other great investors to help build Turaco to the next stage of growth. Our vision is to insure a billion people in the next 25 years. Investors like these will help propel us to that reality.”