Turaco has announced the close of a $10 million Series A equity round 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. Turaco forms partnerships with top tech-enabled companies with a large pool of customers or staff in emerging markets. They include Sun King, One Acre Fund, Tugende, M-KOPA and VisionFund. Through its partnerships, the company 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. Turaco enables companies to integrate insurance into their products and services efficiently and at no additional risk or cost. 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.
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.”
The latest round of funding places Turaco in a strong position to power innovation in inclusive insurance.
The company received Ksh. 218 Million in seed funding in 2020. 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 came a year after the company US$1.2 million in seed capital.