South African FinTech startup Fo-Sho has launched a product aimed at making short-term insurance with long-term benefits via self-insurance widely accessible
South African FinTech startup Fo-Sho has launched a product aimed at making short-term insurance with long-term benefits via self-insurance widely accessible.
A Startupbootcamp accelerator participant, Johannesburg-based Fo-Sho recently secured a multi-million-rand venture capital investment and will be launching with premium commitments in excess of R10 million. The Fo-Sho team has over 50 years of collective experience and its insurance products use artificial intelligence, machine learning, behavioural economics and peer-to peer underwriting.
Policy holders are grouped into similar risk profiles. These groups create savings pools which then reduce the cost of risk and act to mitigate excess payments in the event of a claim. It claims one can register for cover in about three minutes.
“We know there is a need in the marketplace. 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,” CEO Avi Naidoo (pictured, flanked by co-founders Mithun Kalan and Siva Moodley) told Disrupt Africa.
“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.”
