Insurtech company, Lami Technologies, has raised an additional $3.7 million in its seed extension round.
The seed extension round was led by early-stage venture firm, Harlem Capital. Harlem Capital focuses on seed-stage tech startups with minority and women founders. Other investment firms that participated in the seed extension include early-stage venture capital firm, Newtown Partners; Peter Bruce-Clark (a partner at New York’s research-driven venture capital company Social Impact Capital); Caribou Honig and Jay Weintraub of InsureTech Connect (a networking platform for insurtech innovators, and senior members from Exotix Advisory. Exotic Advisory is a corporate finance and M&A boutique focused on emerging and developing markets).
Lami Technologies, which is based in Kenya, had raised $1.8 million in its seed round last year. The seed round was led by seed-stage investment firm Accion Venture Lab, with participations from AAIC, Consonance, P1 Ventures, Acuity Ventures, The Continent Venture Partners, and Future Africa. With this newly raised seed extension, the company has now raised $5.5 million for its seed round.
The startup, through its founder, and CEO, Jihan Abass, said the additional funding would be used to scale product, business, and technology development. The company will also use the fund to push its expansion into other African countries like Egypt, Uganda, and Nigeria.
“Lami is pioneering innovation in the insurance sector, and we are glad to have secured the right partners to help drive insurance uptake across Africa. We are looking to make insurance easily accessible to everyone on the continent, and we will continually be unveiling more products that confirm this resolve,” Abass said.
Speaking on Lami Technologies, Harlem Capital’s Principal, Gabby Cazeau, said Harlem Capital was drawn to Lami Technologies by its strategic approach to growth, as well as the diversified market scope.
“We believe the next wave of fintech will embed financial products and services like insurance into a customer’s purchase experience. Lami’s approach to serving people through strategic partners in ecommerce and finance is the best way to build trust with users and deliver insurance in a seamless, accessible way to Africans across the continent. Lami’s impressive growth to date shows that this resonates with customers and have a strong trajectory as they expand across the continent,” Cazeau said.
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Peter Bruce-Clark, partner at Social Impact Capital, also commented, he said:
“There are numerous societal vulnerabilities around the globe that will only be addressed by innovative, and technology-led solutions within this century. Lami’s products, many of which are accessible instantly, ushers Africa into a new and financially safer paradigm, a journey we’re passionate to be involved in,” added Peter Bruce-Clark.
Founded in 2018, Lami Technologies aim to address the current African problem of low insurance uptake. The company plans to tackle this with “technologies that make insurance affordable through ‘bite-sized’ premiums.” One of the company’s products is the insurance cover for mobile phones, which can be gotten at the point of sale.