Bismart, a Kenyan start-up insurance aggregator, has entered into an agreement with GreenTec Capital, a German long term impact investor, to enable the start up upscale its digital and online platforms so as to connect customers to insurance and investment solutions that are available in Africa.
According to Eunice Maina, CEO Bismart Insurance, Bismart has a vision to help customers by giving them a friendly, transparent and convenient way of accessing the insurance and investment services. “By using emerging technologies to address the issues of financing and transparency in insurance, Bismart aims to empower the customer to be financially independent, with the ultimate aim of increasing insurance penetration in Kenya which is still very low,” she said.
On the other hand, Erick Yong, CEO GreenTec Capital, believes that many African start-ups are faced with the challenge of implementing solutions with distribution channels that have Pan-African reach. “However, Bismart’s application of emerging technologies solves this problem brilliantly, while disrupting the insurance value chain from customer
acquisition to risk management,” says Yong.
The agreement between the two companies is set to help Bismart as they will have access to the expertise and experience that GreenTec has amassed over the years funding other start-ups in the African region. In addition, Bismart will also have a team of international experts from GreenTec at their disposal. They will assist in implementing the latest technology to the model so as to extend its local value chain and thus have more impact.
The CEO Bismart said that with assistance from GreenTec, the digital interface being developed will be able to allow the distribution of insurance products across all of Africa. Additionally, the platform through the adoption of the blockchain technology would help the start-up to increase efficiency and transparency while at the same time allowing information to be distributed across different regions simultaneously.
Apart from GreenTec Capital, Bismart has also benefited from the commitment of an initial investor as well as from a seed capital of Sh1million awarded to it by the Standard Chartered Women in Tech Incubator for being the most innovative and scalable business model in Kenya.
