Black-owned local insurtech start-up Fo-Sho has publicly launched its first digital insurance product to the SA market.
According to the start-up, the new platform aims to make short-term insurance with long-term benefits via self-insurance possible for everyone. "The product relies on policyholders forming groups with similar risk profiles to create savings pools to reduce the cost of risk financing and to mitigate excess payments in the event of a claim. The app gives the consumer the power to get insurance quickly, and on their own terms in approximately three minutes. It's intuitive, facilitates immediate price checking, and incentivises inviting like-minded, risk-aligned friends to join and contribute to decreasing group premiums via a referral and bonus savings scheme," explained Fo-Sho co-founder and CEO, Avi Naidoo.
The start-up which has been beta testing its product has been a participant in the ongoing Startupbootcamp accelerator in Cape Town and has thus far secured premium commitments in excess of R10 million underwritten by Constantia insurance company, through a combined portfolio of SMEs and emerging middle-class sign-ups. Furthermore the company has also secured a multi-million rand venture capital investment from BEE investor and Dempsey Naidoo, director at Alpha Vista Systems, an Australian AI and big data start-up.
Zach George, co-MD of Startupbootcamp, says the platform will definitely disrupt the insurance sector. "Fo-Sho represents a breakthrough technology in the short-term insurance space where for the first time a tech platform combines proven insurance models with machine-learning linked to behavioural economics so that a socially validated methodology can be applied to insure clients in the fairest way. The result is the pooling of like-minded risk groups and a reduced risk of fraudulent claims - a major pain point for policy issuers - and subsequently giving issuers greater leeway to increase the amount of cash-backs paid to claim-free clients."
According to a FinScope South Africa consumer survey, there are 35 million adults in South Africa and only 15% of them have insurance - with another 15% that want insurance but can't afford it.
"We know there is a need in the market place. On the lower or higher socio-economic spectrum, our research shows that barriers of distrust of large corporates and their bloated profit margins, or simply an inability to understand complex jargon, is resulting in an enormous population that are financially excluded from the benefits of being insured. We cannot attain our goals of financial equality or financial independence at scale if we don't first fix critical financial tools and accessibility of these models, like insurance," notes Naidoo.
Access to the platform is available on the Web site: https://www.f6s.com/fo-shoinsurance.
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