Turaco, one of the leading African insuretech distributing affordable insurance, is celebrating insuring over one million people across Africa. This follows after the startup raised USD$10M Series A in September 2022, and is using that investment to proliferate its operations in Kenya, Nigeria, and Uganda — providing access to a much-needed safety net against financial shocks to mass market consumers.
In a press statement, Mr. Ted Patone, CEO and Co-Founder of Turaco said the startup was founded with a vision to insure the next 1 billion people.
“Surpassing 1 million customers is an important and validating milestone in that process,” he said. “More importantly, this number represents 1,000,000 individual mothers, fathers, children, and community members that have access to better health care and improved financial resiliency as a result of Turaco insurance.”
“We are excited to continue on our path to 1 billion people insured,” concludes Ted.
Turaco’s vision is to insure a billion people within the next 25 years.
89 million Africans face a catastrophic health event annually, spending up to 10% of their income on a single event, and health shocks push 14 million Africans into poverty each year. This is in part because less than 2% of people in East and West Africa have access to insurance. Tapping their idea into solving this problem, Turaco expands access to affordable and simple insurance products. They do this by forming partnerships with top tech-enabled companies such as M-KOPA, Paga, One Acre Fund, and Vision Fund to design white-labeled products where customers can then sign up and pay for insurance as they buy these products or services.
In Uganda, 350,000 of those protected by Turaco signed up in the last 3 months as part of a newly launched partnership with Airtel Money Uganda and Prudential Uganda. The rapid customer uptake reinforces the demand for Turaco’s innovative and customer-centric products and approach. From a simple 2-step USSD sign-up process to an average 15-hour turnaround time on claims processing and payment, the Airtel Hospital Sente product is designed to be simple and easy to use.
