Agricultural insurance business raises $1.2m seed funding

OKO, an insurtech start-up that provides inclusive agricultural insurance to secure farmers’ income across Africa, has closed a seed investment of $1.2 million. The round was led by Newfund and ResiliAnce. Mercy Corps Venture, Techstars, ImpactAssets and RaSa also participated in the round.

The start-up, which currently operates in Mali and Uganda, uses satellite data and mobile payments to create automated insurance products for farmers whose fields are affected adversely by weather events – primarily droughts and floods. With the new funding, OKO aims to strengthen its presence in Mali and Uganda and expand its offerings to more African markets, starting with Ivory Coast.

“Agriculture is by far the largest source of occupation in Africa, with an estimated 33 million farms. And yet, farmers are deprived from basic financial services like insurance and loans,” says Simon Schwall, founder of OKO. “We are using technology to solve this issue and secure the income of those farmers.”

The company already has approximately 7,000 paying customers in Mali and compensated more than 1,000 farmers last year who were affected by floods. OKO’s customers typically grow maize, cotton, sesame or millet.

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