YC-backed Curacel Unveils New API Platform That Enables Tech-Led Businesses To Offer Insurance
Curacel, the YC-backed startup developing insurance infrastructure for the African market, has launched a new interface that allows digital businesses like those in retail, fintech, e-commerce, and logistics to add insurance to their core products.
Dubbed Curacel Grow – the new product is an embedded insurance product that empowers technology companies to seamlessly offer insurance as part of their existing products and services.
The Nigerian insurtech startup is launching Grow to support insurance distribution to millions of Africans through partners like Barter by Flutterwave, Float, Payhippo, and other leading technology companies.
Insurance penetration in Africa currently stands at less than 3 percent, with most policies sold offline and manually via brokers and agents.
This process makes insurance products expensive and out of reach for many price-sensitive Africans, but Curacel’s Grow aims to change things.
With Grow, insurers can accelerate the distribution of their products by taking advantage of Curacel’s technology to easily embed insurance within other digital experiences in a more accessible way.
Speaking on the new product to Insider, Henry Mascot, CEO and co-founder of Curacel said, “risk protection is a major consideration for Africa’s growing middle class. As it becomes easier to access credit and other financial services to enable new experiences, we want to make it easier to protect these experiences and enjoy them with full confidence.
“The success of various technology companies over the years has opened the door to many previously underserved people, and we want to take advantage of this to accelerate the penetration of much-needed insurance products across the continent.”
Curacel already has a presence in eight countries across Africa, allowing insurers to connect with digital distribution channels and administer their claims cost-effectively.
The startup is also part of the Winter 2022 cohort of Silicon Valley’s prestigious Y Combinator accelerator, joining the growing list of successful African startups that have participated in and benefitted from the program.
