FSD Africa has unveiled a new venture initiative aimed at closing Africa’s widening insurance protection gap, announcing a $25–30 million Inclusive Insurtech Investment Fund (3iF) at the BimaLab Africa Insurtech Summit 2025 in Nairobi. The two-day summit, held on November 26–27, convened insurers, regulators, investors, innovators, and development actors under the theme “Insuring Africa’s Future: Innovation, Inclusion and Investment.” The new fund is positioned as a catalyst for scaling insurance technology solutions that can protect vulnerable households and businesses across the continent.
New Inclusive Insurtech Fund
3iF is structured as a pan-African venture capital vehicle focused on early-stage insurtech startups that expand access to affordable and relevant insurance. The fund will target solutions that strengthen climate resilience, improve health coverage, and deepen financial inclusion for underserved communities that remain largely uninsured. Building on the track record of the BimaLab Accelerator, which has supported more than 135 startups in 28 African countries, 3iF is designed to bridge the financing gap that often prevents promising insurtechs from scaling.
Blended Capital Model to Unlock Scale
Expected to launch in January 2026, 3iF will use a blended finance structure to crowd in private capital into a sector often perceived as high risk. Junior equity from catalytic investors, anchored by FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi), will sit beneath senior equity from commercial and strategic investors led by regional reinsurer Zep Re. FSD Africa’s Director of Adaptation and Resilience, Kelvin Massingham, said the fund aims to back the next generation of insurtech pioneers so that insurance can become more accessible, affordable, and relevant for millions of Africans.
Regulatory Toolkit to Support Innovation
Alongside the fund announcement, FSD Africa and partners launched a Regulatory Sandbox Eligibility Assessment Toolkit at the summit. The toolkit provides regulators with a structured way to assess the potential impact of new insurtech solutions, helping them decide which models should enter regulatory sandboxes for controlled testing. By streamlining evaluations, it seeks to lower barriers for startups and expand access to risk protection for informal workers, rural households, smallholder farmers, and low-income communities across the continent.
Strengthening Regulatory Readiness
The Insurance Regulatory Authority of Kenya, which co-founded BimaLab, underscored the importance of regulatory preparedness in unlocking innovation. CEO and Commissioner Godfrey Kiptum said that a stronger regulatory environment lays the groundwork for a more resilient and inclusive insurance market over the next decade. He noted that BimaLab’s new toolkit will serve not only Kenyan authorities but also regulators across Africa that are grappling with how to supervise fast-evolving insurtech models without stifling innovation.
Tackling Africa’s Protection Gap
Africa’s protection gap remains acute, with insurance penetration still below 3 percent in most markets. In 2022, around 80 percent of economic losses from natural disasters on the continent went uninsured, a sharp increase from 58 percent in 2021, leaving households and small businesses exposed to shocks they cannot quickly recover from. FSD Africa and the Insurance Regulatory Authority launched the BimaLab Accelerator in Kenya in July 2020 to address this challenge by nurturing solutions that increase insurance penetration among low-income and underserved communities.
BimaLab’s Expanding Impact
BimaLab, backed by FSD Africa and the Swiss Re Foundation, has become one of Africa’s leading insurance innovation platforms, combining mentorship, technical support, investor readiness, and regulatory engagement for early and growth-stage startups. Since 2020, it has helped create more than 150 insurance solutions that now reach over 6 million customers, while collaborating with 15 regulatory authorities to support seven insurance sandboxes. Elias Omondi, Principal of Innovation for Resilience at FSD Africa, noted that Africa’s protection gap reflects both a capacity and capital deficit, and argued that pairing technical support with catalytic funding helps insurtechs de-risk innovation and scale inclusive products.
Summit Showcases Real-World Outcomes
The BimaLab Africa Insurtech Summit 2025 showcased live examples of what this ecosystem can deliver in practice. Turaco, a Kenyan micro-insurance provider and BimaLab alumnus, highlighted how support from the program has helped it expand from Kenya into Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana, now insuring more than one million customers and processing over 20,000 claims. CEO and co-founder Ted Pantone said the company’s original ambition to insure one billion people across Africa remains intact, arguing that Turaco’s trajectory illustrates the potential of the BimaLab model.
With the launch of 3iF and the introduction of a new regulatory sandbox toolkit, FSD Africa is moving to combine capital, policy tools, and ecosystem support to accelerate inclusive insurance innovation across Africa. The fund’s blended structure is intended to draw more private investors into insurtech while channeling capital toward solutions that directly address the continent’s protection gap. Together with the maturing BimaLab platform and growing regulatory engagement, these initiatives signal a new phase in efforts to build resilient, inclusive insurance markets that can better protect Africa’s most vulnerable communities.