Digitalisation is driving massive changes in the insurance sector quite lately. It has enabled a new way of communicating, information sharing, and insuring. On the other hand, customers have also evolved significantly and look for the most transparent and seamless experience.
Based out of Lagos, Nigeria, Casava is the country’s first 100% digital insurance company. Recently, the company has raised $4M funding in the pre-seed round.
Who invested?
The funding round, the largest pre-seed round for an African insurtech to date, was led by Target Global. Other investors, including Entrée Capital, Oliver Jung, Tom Blomfield (Founder of Monzo), and Ed Robinson and Brandon Krieg (Founders of Stash). African founders such as Uche Pedro (Founder of BellaNaija), Babs Ogundeyi and Musty Mustapha (Founders of Kuda), Shola Akinlade (Co-founder of Paystack), Olugbenga “GB” Agboola (Co-founder of Flutterwave), Honey Ogundeyi (Founder of Edukoya), Opeyemi Awoyemi (Co-founder of Jobberman) and others also participated in the round.
The funding will be used to boost customer acquisition and growth, product development, and the technology stack.
“Our mission is to provide affordable insurance for Nigerians and other Africans and we are happy to have raised these funds from an exciting group of investors, “ says Bode Pedro, Founder, and CEO of Casava, “With less than 1% of the country insured, Nigeria (and Africa) is an untapped insurance market. We want to address the barriers that hinder adoption and add value to consumers across the country.”
Makes insurance affordable
Led by Bode Pedro, Casava makes insurance affordable for income earners and protects against key life uncertainties.
Currently, the company offers income protection and health insurance leveraging artificial intelligence and behavioural science. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, around 20% of workers in Nigeria lost their jobs as a result of COVID-19.
Insurance plans
With the Casava Income Protection plan, subscribers can insure their income with a subscription plan that starts from $1 a month and gets paid monthly for 6 months if they lose their job, fall sick, or become disabled.
On the other hand, subscribers can also add on Casava Health, which enables access to more than 1,000 doctors on telemedicine and 900 hospitals across Nigeria.
Users can access the company’s insurance products from the website, mobile app, or WhatsApp.
The Nigerian company is planning to work with fintech and digital partners to embed insurance products into their offerings, accessing over 500,000 financial service agents to reach customers across the country.
Casava, Nigeria’s first licensed microinsurance underwriter was launched in April 2021. The company has more than 66,000 customers, with $16M in insurance coverage.
Investor
Target Global is a pan-European technology investment firm with more than €3B in AUM. The VC invests in companies across all stages of their life cycle from pre-seed to pre-IPO.
To date, Target has backed 11 unicorns, had 17 exits and 7 realised IPOs. Headquartered in Berlin, Target has offices across London, Tel Aviv, Barcelona, Cyprus, and Moscow.
Commenting on the funding, Dr. Ricardo Schäfer, a partner at Target Global said, “Bode and the team have recognised a great opportunity to address a longstanding problem for many Nigerians and Africans and we are excited to support their mission to make insurance more accessible. One of the first of their kind in the region, Casava has the potential to transform the lives and livelihood of millions of people.”
“The Casava team has developed a unique and disruptive product that we believe has the potential to transform Africa’s insurance market,” adds Avi Eyal, General Partner at Entrée Capital. “We are confident in the Casava team that they have what it takes to be leaders in this field.”
