Sella Kenya-based insurtech, has raised $20M Series B funding round from investors to create new partnerships and expand its operations in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
Investors include the Global Investment Manager Blue Orchard, who led the round through the InsuResilience strategy. Other investors include IFC, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hesabu Capital, and existing investors.
About Pula
Pula has created a distribution channel for it over 100 partners, including charities, banks, governments and agricultural input companies, to serve even hard-to-reach farmers by building insurance, for example, into the cost of agricultural inputs or credit.
Every product offered by Pula is adapted to the requirements of its customers and the needs of the beneficiary farmers.
Products, underwritten by insurance and reinsurance companies, are designed (including premium setting) through Pula’s actuaries digital platformbased on historical data, including weather patterns, and the frequency of events such as floods or droughts, harvests, losses and inputs used.
Zoom in
Pula says they have seen increased investment, returns and savings from farmers using its products, highlighting the benefits agricultural insurance holds for emerging markets such as Africa, where small-scale farmers contributes 70% of the food supply even only 1% of these are covered.
What they say
- “Working with this group of like-minded investors to drive Pula’s growth globally is a very exciting milestone in advancing our triple 100 vision, through which we aim to insure 100 million smallholder farmers. What started nine years ago as an unconventional idea that many considered unscalable is now a proven solution that has solved real-world needs for millions of smallholder farmers in 22 countries“, said the CEO of Pula Thomas Njeruwho co-founded the company with me Rose Gosling.
- “Research conducted by Pula in some African countries where we have delivered insurance shows that agricultural insurance helps smallholder farmers to increase their farm investment by an average of 16%, improve yields by 56% and increase household savings by up to and 170%. Also, the impact on farmers’ livelihoods can be seen through the payouts of our insurance partners β which have reached close to more than $40 million to 900,000 farmers since Pula’s inception to dateNjeru added.
- βFinally, our impact is reflected in our rate of renewal and growth. Eighty percent of farmer groups and aggregators that purchase insurance products developed in Pula from our partner insurers renew in the following year, which is above the industry average and reflects our customers’ satisfaction with the integrated products us”.
What happens next?
Pula is set to introduce livestock covers in countries such as Kenya after completing a pilot program started in Nigeria last year.
Pula, through insurance partners, offers rural families in Nigeria comprehensive coverage against robbery, disease and death of animals. It is also doubling down on Asia and Latin America, markets it entered in 2021.
Source: Techcrunch
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