By Mark Kawalya
Turaco, an insuretech startup, has hit a milestone of insuring more than 1,000,000 lives, according to an announcement from the firm. Knowing the importance of distributing affordable insurance packages, Turaco raised a $10 million Series A in September 2022, which has been the bedrock for the firm’s rapid growth.
With footprints in Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya, Turaco offers mass market consumers a means of mitigating financial shocks. In the last 3 months, 350,000 new clients were onboarded as a result of the firm’s newly launched partnership with Airtel Money Uganda and Prudential Uganda.
The rapid client uptake is testament to Turaco’s customer-focused products and simplified approach to insurance. For example, New clients are able to sign up using a quick USSD procedure, while claims and payments are processed within 15 hours. This is under the Airtel Hospital Sente product, which has been curated for easy use.
In Africa, 89 million people are faced with life-threatening health events annually, forcing them to spend their savings on a single event. Such health shocks drive 14 million Africans into poverty every year. The main driver of these statistics is that less than 2% of people in East and West Africa have access to insurance.
By partnering with tech-driven firms such as M-KOPA, Vision Fund, Paga, and One Acre Fund, Turaco accelerates people’s access to insurance products that are affordable and easy to use. New clients are able to sign up and make insurance payments as they purchase the services and products of Turaco’s partners.
Ted Patone, CEO and Co-founder of Turaco, said, “We founded Turaco with a vision to insure the next 1 billion people. Surpassing 1 million customers is an important and validating milestone in that process. 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.”
