Casava: Backing the people and the product that will lead Nigeria and Africa into the insurtech revolution
Africa is one of the world’s most underdeveloped markets when it comes to insurance, but it is developing fast and its potential is huge. Growth across the continent is estimated at ~7% p.a., nearly twice as fast as in North America and over three times that of Europe. Paired with strong population and economic growth over the coming decades, the African insurance market (currently valued at around $70bn in terms of GWP) is set for take off. (1)
And unlike Europe and North America where, over centuries, insurance was built on the back of brick and mortar and offline distribution channels, a new breed of insurance companies in Africa have the opportunity to digitally rebuild insurance from the ground up: avoiding legacy costs, and adopting innovative digital distribution channels from the get go.
In the absence of any state-run insurance schemes (Nigeria’s national scheme covers less than 3% of its citizens), it’s only a question of time before Africa will see its first pan-African insurtech champion emerge.
Introducing, Casava, Nigeria’s first 100% digital insurance company
When we first met Bode the founder of Casava in Lagos in the summer of 2021, we immediately fell in love with his vision for bringing affordable insurance products to all Africans. Given how nascent insurtech is in Africa, we were looking to back an entrepreneur who we were confident could not only become a category leader but also drive the broader digital revolution taking place on the continent. Bode is unquestionably that CEO that every investor dreams of meeting — someone with endless passion and commitment and most importantly, someone who isn’t afraid to venture to uncharted terrain to transform how people think about insurance.
What is Casava?
Casava is Nigeria’s first licensed microinsurance underwriter(2), making it easy and affordable for any Nigerian to access insurance through a proprietary, fully integrated technology stack and behaviour-based user engagement process. Despite having only recently launched, it has already managed to secure distribution agreements with global insurance players, who cover both 100% of the risk and cashback.
Casava’s ambition is to cover the full range of insurance products: income protection, health, P&C (i.e. property and casualty including home, car and pets) and life insurance. For now they started with two products: (1) Income Protection and (2) Health insurance.
- With Casava Income Protection, subscribers can insure their income with an easy-to-use subscription that starts from as little as $1 a month, and get paid monthly for 6 months if they lose their job, fall sick or become disabled. It’s a revolutionary product across Africa which Casava is pioneering
- Subscribers can also add on Casava Health, which enables access to more than 1,000 doctors on telemedicine and 900 hospitals across Nigeria.
Consumers can subscribe to Casava’s insurance products directly via their website, mobile app or via WhatsApp. It will also partner with fintech and other digital providers to embed insurance products into their offerings, accessing over 500,000 financial service agents across the country. Casava trains, certifies and empowers these agents to offer insurance and earn commissions from the customers for a lifetime.
Launched in April 2021, Casava has already seen rapid growth, with more than 70,000 live customers.
Target Global ❤️ Insurtech
At Target, we are big fans of Insurtech. Having invested across multiple rounds of some of Europe’s most successful companies in this field, including WeFox, Zego and YuLife, we have had the privilege of seeing first-hand how disruptive and transformative technology has been for the insurance sector in recent years.
We are thrilled to continue supporting this trend by leading Africa’s largest insurtech seed round alongside our friends from Entree Capital and a number of high profile angels, including Oliver Jung, Tom Blomfield (founder of Monzo), Ed Robinson and Brandon Krieg (Founders of Stash), Babs Ogundeyi & Musty Mustapha (Founders of Kuda), Shola Akinlade (Co-founder of Paystack), Olugbenga “GB” Agboola (Co-founder of Flutterwave), Honey Ogundeyi (Founder of Edukoya) and Dan Hegarty (founder of Habito).
Casava has the potential to transform the lives and livelihood of millions across the African continent and we look forward to supporting them in delivering on this mission to make insurance more affordable and accessible.
(1) Licensed by Nigeria’s National Insurance Commission as a microinsurance underwriter, which allows it to underwrite and sell insurance products
