According to mTek CEO, Bente Krogmann, the company is looking forward to expanding its operations across East Africa and the $3 million funding they got from the Mauritius-based Finclusion Group will help them achieve this feat faster.
The Kenyan startup, mTek is a digital insurance platform that aids uninsured Kenyan citizens to get insured with ease by increasing the country’s market penetration by 3%.
The company was launched in 2020 by Bente Krogmann and already had over 65,000 users within Kenya alone who use their platform to insure mostly their medical expenditures and vehicles.
What Mtek People Are Saying
“mTek came into the market to address the issue of transparent, easily accessible, and affordable insurance. In addition, we saw a need to reach underserved populations through insurance-focused technology. The other gap was no insurer was offering a fully-fledged digital solution that users can utilize from whichever part of Kenya they are at without having to fill out some paperwork.
We found that the number of documents required to sign up for an insurance product was too many, hence discouraging conversion. As a result, we created a platform that is easy to understand, fast, and simple to understand, and in the times of COVID-19 able to provide users a fast turnaround time when it came to claims.
Consumers are skeptical of taking insurance due to inaccessibility to insurance, ability to pay for insurance, inhibitive distribution channels, cumbersome claim settlement processes and perceived low returns for some policies.
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When we founded the company, we used our savings to start up the business. However, our conviction that mTek is a product that should reach every Kenya that seeks social and financial protection saw us seek investors. We sought investors who shared our vision to touch and change more lives through mTek.
We would like to impact insurance penetration through our innovative technology which touches on the existing customer pain points of distribution, affordability, and right product-market-fit-and trust”.
The CEO also stated that they generated their revenue through the commissions gained on the sale of premium insurance available on the platform.
They also had challenges in persuading writers to write about the benefits of the platform but later on, after they saw the user-friendliness offered on the platform they accepted the proposal and with their help, the company grew faster and that helped the company to reach more Kenyans across the country.
What Are The Benefits of Insurance Companies To The African Economy?
When people hear of insurance companies, most people think of the payment and costs they will have to incur for them to keep their businesses running but most individuals fail to identify how the sector has been beneficial to the African economy and has helped in boosting its GDP. Here are the ways by which the insurance sector is beneficial to the
African economy:
1) They offer financial protection for their users:
People in our modern world have become very used to certain routines that they don’t remind themselves of the huge risk involved in those actions ranging from a car accident, plane crash, storm, or injury at work to unexpected hardships which may occur at any moment.
Having an insurance company by your side could be very helpful in such scenarios and can serve as financial protection amid any disaster, through the help of an insurance plan they are covered even in the face of financial bankruptcy. Most big companies present today are usually insured so that in the means of any financial crisis or material need they have a place to turn.
2) They help to reduce business’s risk and also aid them in the protection of their employees: By helping businesses reduce the risk associated with businesses insurance companies help to add a big, lasting, and positive impact on the economy.
Since businesses are prone to sudden financial challenges and even bankruptcy, having an insurance company is by far one of the best tools or resources you could possess to tackle the obstacle.
There are some risks and investments that a business won’t venture into because they don’t want to be at a loss but with an insurance company, they have a protective net which makes venture into new fields which will bring more jobs that shows a growth in the state of the economy.
In the case, there is an accident at work that lead to the injury of an employee, business insurance plans to aid in providing funds for the treatment of that employee and also take charge of the payment of the wages if there is any interruption from the company due to some issues.
3) It also encourages savings:
Insurance can also be described as a more formal way of saving money, it is also an investment platform where the insured saves money for either his son’s schooling, etc. Life insurance is a type of insurance whereby the insured saves a regular amount of money periodically and later insured receives the money at the end of his career which encourages savings among working adults.
4) They also help in the growth of the economy:
They assist the growth of the company immensely by mobilizing domestic savings and the transformation of accumulated capital into productive investments. They encourage financial stability and promote trade and commerce activities which will result in the growth of the country’s economy.
5) They allow for recovery or replacement:
When signing an insurance policy, they are places where they specify that they will grant businesses the free hand to replace buildings and other facilities amid an earthquake or any other disaster which aids the insured to save more while conducting major repairs on the commodity.