MyCover.ai: How Adebowale Banjo Discovered His Business Idea And Raised $1.25 Pre-Seed Funding

Adebowale  and his team created MyCover.ai to improve access to insurance services by enhancing the  distribution of insurance   products more quickly and affordably 

MyCover.ai, is an insurtech platform which  provides open insurance API that enables businesses and innovators to embed and distribute insurance to anyone in Africa.

Banjo Conceived the business idea of MyCover.ai while working on a digital insurance project with his friends at  AutoGenius. His work at AutoGenius made him to start learning deeply about the insurance industry

Despite Nigeria being Africa's most populous country, its insurance penetration rate is among the lowest in the region, currently standing at just 0.5% as of March 2022.

In contrast, South Africa's insurance penetration rate is much higher, at around 14%, while Kenya's is around 2.8%. And  according to the African Insurance Barometer 2021, insurance penetration in Africa as a whole is only 2.8%, which is significantly lower than the global average of 6.2%.

In response to prevalent low penetration of insurance in Nigeria and the need to make insurance products more accessible, Banjo had a conversation with his team Alex about building an infrastructure that every insurance activity passes through. That was the seed that  grew to become MyCover.ai,   led by Adebowale Banjo, co-founder and CEO; Alexander Igwe-Ifendu, Co-founder/Chief Product Officer; and Fred Ebho, Co-Founder/Chief Technology Officer.

The company operates a business model which involves  partnering with fintechs, e-commerce platforms, logistics companies, lenders, proptechs, and other industries. Its proprietary open insurance API  infrastructure helps to streamline underwriting and product creation and offers data to the underwriters to assist them in creating insurance products

MyCover.ai is positioning itself as the go-to embedded insurance provider. It has attracted more than 10,000 active users, including 4000 first-time buyers of insurance products. It has over 30 distributors on its platform, it has partnered with over nine insurance companies,  and it also has 26 insurance products across the board as well as  co-created products with their partners.

MyCover.ai recently  raised $1.25 million in a pre-seed funding round led by Ventures Platform, and includes participation from Founders Factory Africa and TechStars, who are making a follow-on investment after the startup’s participation in its 2022 Toronto Accelerator program.

Africa’s insurance market is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7% between 2022 and 2028, reaching $120 billion. 

The company is using the funds  to bolster its in-house operations and tech talent, invest heavily in its proprietary technology and strategically expand its operations into other African markets.

@Smatkaria