GreenTec Cpital, a Frankfurt-based Firm has made an investment into Kenyan insurance company, Bismart, a Pan-African blockchain-powered insurance tech startup providing a digital surface to offer insurance products and services across Africa.
Bismart’s vision is to enable every African to access insurance in a transparent, convenient, and friendly manner, without the burden of immediate out-of-pocket payments. Bismart is using emerging technologies to address issues such as financing and transparency. It aims to gain a strong foothold in the African market.
The company will start with a small range of service and products. It is currently developing an interface that will allow the distribution of insurance products across all of Africa, facilitating the rapid roll-out and scaling of the business.
Bismart founder Eunice Maina, a Kenyan entrepreneur who has 15 years’ experience in the insurance sector has dedicated most of her life to protecting customers through insurance. Maina intends to use technology to develop a platform that embraces a more personal and trust-building user experience that has been the core of her business. This platform will also help Bismart to increase efficiency and transparency through the implementation of Blockchain technology “Smart-Contracts” in order to facilitate policy management and benefit from the security of decentralized databases.
Insurance adoption in Sub-Saharan Africa is remarkably low, single digits for most parts, with the exception of South Africa with a rate above 10%. This is due in part to the inability of insurance companies to rely on traditional payment channels provided by banks for premium collection and claim pay-outs. Additionally, the African market is primarily composed of consumers with unsteady cash flows and low incomes that are wary of paying for services without perceived tangible benefits. Low financial literacy levels at the BOP also contribute to this statistic. This results in inefficiencies in customer acquisition, policy management, and claims resolution. Bismart aims to tackle these problems through its platform.
GreenTec’s CEO Erick Yong said “One of the biggest challenges for innovative startups in Africa is the implementation of solutions with distribution channels that have Pan-African reach. Bismart’s application of emerging technologies solves this problem brilliantly, while disrupting the insurance value chain from customer acquisition to risk management.”