Germans invests in Kenyan blockchain insurance company

German start-up financier GreenTec Capital has announced its investment into Kenyan blochchain based Bismart Insurance company. By using emerging technologies to address the issues of financing and transparency, Bismart aims to gain a strong foothold in the African market. The company will start with a small range of service and products that will be expanded quickly.

The interface being developed by the Bismart team will allow the distribution of insurance products across all of Africa, facilitating the rapid roll-out and scaling of the business.

The company’s founder, Eunice Maina, is a Kenyan woman entrepreneur who has dedicated 15 years’ of her life to protecting customers through insurance. She has now decided to embrace the challenge of Entrepreneurship and 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 in the low single digits with South Africa as an exception with a rate above 10%. This is due in part to the inability of insurance companies to rely on the 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.

And finally, insurance acceptance is further limited by low financial literacy at the BOP that leads to inefficiencies in customer acquisition, policy management, and claims resolution. Bismart solves 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.”

In addition to GreenTec’s investment, Bismart has already benefited from the commitment of an initial investor to develop its platform and expects to be able to launch its service offerings by the start of Q4 2018.

Leveraging on cutting edge technology, the company provides a digital interface to offer insurance products and services across Africa. Bismart’s vision is to enable every African to access insurance without the burden of immediate out-of-pocket payments, in a transparent, convenient, and friendly manner.