Louw Hopley - Afrikan Heroes

South Africa’s Root Secures $1.5M Boost from Invenfin for Global Expansion of Innovative Insurance Technology

September 28, 2023

Root, the pioneering force behind a low-code, API-first, end-to-end insurance technology platform, has unveiled a significant boost to its financial arsenal in a strategic move towards global expansion.

In a testament to their ongoing partnership, Invenfin, the venture and growth capital arm of South Africa’s Remgro Limited, has demonstrated renewed faith in Root’s vision by injecting an additional $1.5 million into the company. Root’s Co-founder, Louw Hopley, expressed his enthusiasm, saying, “Our enduring collaboration with Invenfin, dating back to their initial investment two years ago, has been incredibly rewarding. Their continued support speaks volumes about their confidence in our growth trajectory as we gear up for international expansion.”

With eyes set firmly on the United Kingdom and the broader European market, Root seeks to capitalize on the evolving landscape of insurance. Invenfin’s strategic infusion of capital is poised to expedite this ambitious endeavor. Hopley further elucidated, “This is an opportune moment for Root, as insurers increasingly recognize the pivotal role of innovative partner insurance channels, notably embedded insurance. They are eager to invest in the robust, API-centric technology we provide to swiftly and confidently access these markets. We’re genuinely thrilled about the exciting prospects that lie ahead for our company in the coming years.”

Root, founded in South Africa in 2016, has been a trailblazer in the low-code platform arena, enabling the creation of contemporary digital insurance products, designed for widespread distribution through direct, affinity, and embedded channels. The company had previously secured investments, including a notable one from Invenfin, in 2021, but details of that previous investment round remain confidential.

The Investment Executive at Invenfin, Theo van den Berg, shared his perspective, remarking, “Root perfectly embodies the kind of enterprise that aligns with Invenfin’s investment philosophy — a dynamic team crafting a globally competitive product that has already demonstrated success in the South African market and exhibits immense global potential. Root’s vision, which centers on the future of embedded insurance, resonates with our belief that companies can offer consumers more accessible, contextual, and affordable insurance solutions. We eagerly stand behind Root as they embark on their growth journey in the UK and beyond.”

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As Root’s coffers swell with this latest financial infusion, the stage is set for an ambitious foray into the UK and European markets. This renewed partnership with Invenfin reaffirms their commitment to revolutionizing the insurance landscape on a global scale, backed by a robust, API-driven technological foundation. The journey ahead holds immense promise for Root, making it a company to watch in the ever-evolving insurance sector.

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard

South African Insurtech Startup Root Raises $3m In Seed Funding Round

November 12, 2021

Root, a South African insurtech API startup that helps businesses and developers launch insurance products more quickly than the traditional approach, has acquired $3 million in seed funding to expand outside of South Africa and establish the infrastructure for the global digital insurance industry.

The round included venture capital firms Invenfin, Base Capital, Savannah Fund, P1 Ventures, Luno, and FireID, as well as several high-impact angel investors.

“We’ve got quite a strong feeling that insurance is stuck in the 1900s. There’s still a lot of paper being used even as consumer behaviour has moved to digital real-time. There’s a personalized kind of environment pretty much in every industry, but insurance is struggling to catch up,” CEO Louw Hopley said.

“And that’s kind of what we’re trying to figure out to break down those barriers and package it behind easy to use APIs so that people can start solving for this new modern digital personalized age.”

Root plans to use the new capital to expand its flexible low-code digital insurance platform to new countries, particularly Europe. Hopley did not specify which nations Root would enter; but, based on the degree of insurance play in the region, the United Kingdom, Germany, and France could be among the first.

While Root intends to acquire more technical and business talent in Europe, Hopley claims that a significant portion of the company’s workforce will remain in South Africa. However, the company’s primary goal, especially as it grows into new territory, is to create the global insurance industry’s operating system, according to Hopley.

Root’s APIs, according to Base Capital’s Paul Rutherford, provide simplicity to the complex business of insurance and improve the experience of both consumers and insurers. P1 Ventures’ Mikael Hajjar, on the other hand, believes Root is the best-positioned African insurtech business to capture market share in Europe and the United States.

A Look At What The Startup Does

Hopley launched Root in 2016. In 2018, Jonathan Stewart joined as a co-founder and director of sales and partnerships. Root’s first product was programmable bank accounts and cards, but it currently focuses on insurance APIs. Root sits on top of insurance firms, which underwrite the products that developers and business analysts construct and integrate into their existing customer experiences, which can take the form of a website, a chatbot, or a mobile app.

The five-year-old firm focuses on non-insurance firms with a consistent client base, as well as enterprises that offer insurance as a supplementary product. For example, telecommunications companies, merchants, and banks. It does, however, power affinity insurance players, including some of the largest in South Africa. Mr Price Money, FinChoice, Telkom, Metropolitan, Sanlam, and Guardrisk are among these clients. These companies have handled millions of policies and thousands of claims each month using Root’s insurance infrastructure.

The South African firm makes money by charging subscription license fees based on the size and complexity of its clients’ requirements.
Root not only assists developers and businesses with the development of insurance products, but it also provides ways for these companies to reach additional customers and manages compliance difficulties.

“We feel there needs to be a standard platform on which people innovate and build their products and integrate with. Essentially, that means we want to be the platform all product innovators, actuaries and developers will log into to build insurance products and get them to market. We feel that if you do that you can drive much more innovation faster because you kind of enable sub economies to spin up and other people to start building specific solutions into insurance. It essentially integrates the whole industry,” Hopley said.

Root South Africa seed Root South Africa seed

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning write