The BLOC Smart Africa fund (BLOC SA), which was launched by the Smart Africa Alliance and is managed by Bamboo Capital Partners, has announced the signing of an agreement to invest €300,000 in Digitech, a SaaS insurance technology start-up based in Côte d’Ivoire. BLOC SA is leading the Seed round, which is catalyzed by Launch Africa Ventures. BLOC SA’s initial investment is in Digitech.

“We are extremely delighted to welcome BLOC SMART AFRICA as the leader of this investment round. Their Support goes beyond capital supply and has extended to strategic advice and company development. We are excited to witness the digital transformation of a century old industry as we gear up towards creating a new digital ecosystem for the entire reinsurance and insurance industry in Africa,” said Mr. Alexandre N’Djore, CEO, Digitech.

The money will be used to advance the development and marketing of Hyperion 2.0 reinsurance ERP software, a cloud-based system that automates transactions between insurers and reinsurers. Currently utilized by hundreds of insurance firms to process over 40 million transactions each year across 14 countries, Hyperion saves significant time and money, eliminates errors, and offers essential business insight in real time.

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Why The Investor Invested

“We are extremely pleased to impact and accelerate the growth of such a dynamic start up as Digitech for the benefit of the continental insurance and reinsurance market. Investing in businesses using scalable technology-led solutions is the DNA of the BLOC Smart Africa fund. Côte d’Ivoire, as one of the first investors, is naturally the first beneficiary. We believe their commitment will inspire and encourage other countries to join the fund so we can rapidly meet the target of €100 million”, commented Mr. Lacina Koné, CEO/Director General, Smart Africa Secretariat.

The Ivory Coast Government is a founding sponsor of the Bloc Smart Africa fund, with the shared goal of fostering Africa’s entrepreneurial ecosystem and catalyzing funding for innovative, scalable technologies that generate growth possibilities.

Smart Africa will assist BLOC SA with its fundraising efforts and work closely with the fund’s management team by offering access to its local and regional technology ecosystems, including incubators and accelerators, and assisting with deal flow generation.

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“I am excited to witness an Ivorian startup engaging in solving current challenges in the insurance, reinsurance market and unlocking opportunities to ultimately, contribute to improve financial protection and increase resilience against various risks for Ivorian people through digital innovation. Technology plays a crucial role in leapfrogging access to essential financial services in Africa. It is my hope that other member states will contribute towards supporting the continent’s digital transformation through this initiative, ” said honorable Minister Roger Adom, Minister of Digital Economy, Technology and Innovation, Government of Côte d’Ivoire.

“Luxembourg’s Development Cooperation has always strived to harness partnerships and experience in the financial realm to explore innovative ways that can scale up its development impact and reach. Creating a blended finance technology impact fund, like the BLOC Smart Africa, is a significant step and illustrates this course of action”, commented Mr. Manuel Tonnar, Director of the Development Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Luxembourg.

A Look At What Digitech Does

Founded in 2016, Digitech is a technology company that focuses in the creation, integration, and marketing of professional solutions and value-added consumer services through the use of emerging information and communication technologies. Digitech supplies incumbent reinsurance and insurance businesses with fully integrated and cloud-based InsurTech systems. 

Digitech’s systems are extremely scalable and adaptable to the unique requirements of each business client. Through secure web access and data repositories that adhere to the most stringent global cloud standards, including GDPR and PCI-DSS, reinsurance and insurance companies can already automate more than 80% of all processes, from premium subscription to intelligent claims processing and billing to technical real-time accounting and visual statistics. 

Hyperion 2.0 will cover all reinsurance contract types and automate 100% of the procedures through the use of some proprietary machine-learning algorithms, resulting in immediate operational efficiencies for our clients.

Digitech received top percentile ratings from two reputable accelerators in Africa and the United States: Start-up Bootcamp and Newchip. Additionally, it was the recipient of the Federation of African National Insurance Companies’ (FANAF) Best Insurtech Award in 2020.

Digitech Ivory Coast Digitech Ivory Coast Digitech Ivory Coast

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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.
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