As most South African businesses reboot following two years of the pandemic, the African fintech sector was one of the big stories of 2021, with the amount of funding for African fintech increasing to $2 billion compared to half a billion in 2020.
This was reiterated during the first-ever Viva Africa Tech awards which took place from 15 to 18 June 2022 in Paris.
Placing South Africa on the map, was Click2Sure, an Insurance Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) that won the Fintech award.
They were one of three fintech startups (two from Kenya and one from South Africa) who were nominated for the fintech category.
Click2Sure CEO Daniel Guasco says: “The fintech space in Africa has tremendous potential, and has become a success through insurtech, therefore, to be recognised as one of the top startups in the fintech space in Africa means more than an award”.
He adds, “Although we’re South African based, we operate in the Sub-Saharan African regions. So, this is a win for all of us who are making an impact in the sector. Years ago, fintech did not mean anything. The launch of the inaugural Viva Africa Tech awards solidifies our milestones and the work we’ve put in”.
The first-ever Viva Africa Tech awards, a pan-African initiative developed to recognize and support impactful start-ups across three key sectors – Climate Tech, Health Tech and FinTech were launched by Viva Tech, with support from the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
The awards aim to help create new market opportunities for emerging start-ups with great impact potential in Africa, catalysing support and inspiring action from investors, policymakers, fellow entrepreneurs, and leading institutions in the tech space.
Other winners included startups from Egypt, Uganda and Kenya in the Climate Tech category, which was won by WEEE Center, a Kenya-based startup that provides services of E-waste management through running eco-friendly operations that are safe and protective of the environment and human health.
The Healthtech category was won by Cheefa, an Egyptian startup which is a GPS-enabled pharmacy benefits platform to help chronic patients order, schedule & refill prescriptions and all pharmacy needs and manage their compliance to treatment irrespective of location/income.
According to data by Data from Willis Towers Watson, investment in insurtech is increasing at pace, with the total investment hitting record highs in 2020 at US$7.1bn raised in 377 deals.
In the African context, insurtech speeds up the time to market for new products, reduces the cost of the service and unlocks markets which were previously perceived to be unviable.
This accelerates and plays a vital role in fostering financial inclusion, further eradicating poverty in Africa and scoring a massive win towards attaining the principle of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
As a service that enables businesses to offer insurance, omnichannel distribution, and reduction in administrative costs, Click2Sure currently operates in five countries in Africa. Their expansion plan is to scale beyond the Sub-Saharan region, and into other continents.
Other South African startups that were nominated include Eco-V GreenTower, The Awareness Company, Aviro Health, Vekta Innovations, Vula Mobile and Abela.
Click2Sure, a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution provider, enables companies to digitally sell life and short-term insurance as well as administer policies.
The platform offering also allows clients to have complete visibility of how their customers are transacting, allowing them to use the power of big data to upsell and market to their customer more effectively.
An end-to-end view of how customers transact means companies can apply data analysis or machine learning to quickly assess what else their customer may require.
Personalisation is a key element of customer experience and a platform solution doesn’t just enable it, but optimises the opportunity.
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