PPS Joins Plug and Play

Issued by PPS for Professionals
Johannesburg, 08 Jan 2019

The Professional Provident Society (PPS), a South African-based financial services company, today announced its partnership with Plug and Play, the world's largest global innovation platform headquartered in Silicon Valley. This partnership increases Plug and Play's exposure in SA, a region with a wealth of untapped opportunities.

"At PPS, we know there is so much more we can do for our members to remain relevant in a digitally driven world," said Billy Lynch, Executive: Strategic Development for PPS. "Embedding ourselves into the Insurtech vertical within Plug and Play will help us explore new opportunities to enhance member experience, drive experimentation and speed up the delivery of cutting-edge solutions for our members."

This partnership will position PPS at the forefront of insurance industry innovation, where the focus will be directed in the areas of insurance, health, IOT (the Internet of Things), media and mobile, and fintech and security, with leaders from different streams participating. The programme is set to begin in January 2019.

"Plug and Play has seen an influx of promising start-ups coming out of the South African region. These companies bring a unique perspective to the global insurance market that we don't see here in Silicon Valley," says Ali Safavi, Global Head of Plug and Play Insurtech. "We're excited to grow this partnership with PPS to collaborate on new innovation efforts from SA."

Plug and Play Insurtech is an innovation platform bringing together corporations, start-ups and investors to work on improving the insurance industry. Since inception in May 2016, the platform has provided a vast innovation platform for over 75 corporate partners and has made over 40 investments in Insurtech start-ups. Plug and Play Insurtech has recently expanded internationally to Beijing, Munich, New York, Singapore and Tokyo.

PPS

PPS boasts in excess of 200 000 members, who enjoy access to a comprehensive suite of financial and healthcare products that are specifically tailored to meet the needs of graduate professionals.

PPS is the largest South African company of its kind that still embraces an ethos of mutuality, which means that it exists solely for the benefit of its members. Thus, PPS members with qualifying products share in the profits of PPS Insurance via annual allocations to the unique PPS Profit-Share Account and those who have qualifying PPS Provider products can also share in the profits of PPS Investments.

PPS membership provides access to the following tried, tested and trusted products and services: PPS Insurance, PPS Short-Term Insurance, PPS Financial Planning, PPS Investments and Profmed Medical Scheme. Visit www.pps.co.za for more information.

PPS is an authorised financial services provider.

Plug and Play

Plug and Play is a global innovation platform. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, it has built accelerator programs, corporate innovation services, and an in-house VC to make technological advancement progress faster than ever before. Since inception in 2006, Plug and Play's programs have expanded worldwide to include a presence in over 20 locations globally, giving start-ups the necessary resources to succeed in Silicon Valley and beyond. With over 10 000 start-ups and 220 official corporate partners, Plug and Play has created the ultimate start-up ecosystem in many industries. Companies in Plug and Play's community have raised over $7 billion in funding, with successful portfolio exits including Danger, Dropbox, LendingClub and PayPal. www.plugandplaytechcenter.com.