Octamile, a startup that offers infrastructure solutions for the provision of digital insurance in Nigeria, has raised $500,000 in pre-seed funding to go public after months of development in stealth.
EchoVC led the round, which included Fiat Ventures, Kesho VC, Trade X, Verraki Partners, Dale Mathias, Kyle Daley (a Chime co-founder), and other local and international Angel investors.
Octamile’s ecosystem of services, founded by Gbenro Dara, helps both insurance and non-insurance businesses in protecting African consumers from financial losses.
The startup provides an end-to-end claims management solution that can be integrated into insurance providers’ existing systems and processes. This enables organisations to provide a seamless claims experience while also lowering administrative costs.
Additionally, Octamile delivers data sourced from a variety of partners that providers may use to improve risk profiling and pricing of customers’ assets, allowing them to optimize the profitability of their insurance portfolio.
“Insurance is one sector that has the power to elevate the economy, but only about five out of 100 Africans have any form of insurance protection. The industry has lagged in the use of technology to deliver better products and services,” said Gbenro Dara, the founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Octamile, who has spent the last decade in leading roles at various technology startups, including Jumia, MyAutoGenius, Hotels.ng and Cheki.
“Our team has identified key areas where we add value and support the growth of the Insurance ecosystem with data and technology by partnering with traditional insurance businesses and non-insurance businesses.”
Describing itself as the “operating system infrastructure for digital insurance in Africa”, Octamile offers various benefits to the ecosystem, including digital claims, improved risk assessment, and embedded insurance APIs.
“Our goal over the next months will be to work closely with our partners, which include AXAMansard, and FirstBank, and onboard the dozens of insurers and startups on the waitlist ready to leverage the power of our solutions,” said Dara.