Jihan Abass is a 27-year-old Kenyan entrepreneur who is shaking up the East African insurance market with her insurtech platform, Lami Technologies.
Abass, who holds an MBA from the University of Oxford and a finance degree from CASS Business School in London, has a background in finance and a passion for entrepreneurship. She founded Lami in 2018, with the goal of increasing insurance penetration across Africa through digital insurance products that can be created and distributed quickly.
One of Lami’s flagship products is Griffin, which has streamlined the process of purchasing car insurance to less than two minutes. In a recent seed extension round, Lami secured $3.7 million in funding, led by Harlem Capital, a New York-based venture capital firm.
The round was also supported by Newtown Partners, as well as angel investors such as Peter Bruce-Clark, Caribou Honig, Jay Weintraub, and Exotix Advisory. This capital injection follows the $1.8 million Lami received in seed funding last year, bringing the total funding from investors to $5.5 million.
According to Abass, the funding will be used for business, product, and technology development, as well as expansion into other countries such as Egypt, Nigeria, and Uganda. As part of its expansion efforts, Lami recently acquired Bluewave Insurance Agency, another insurtech startup that uses mobile technology to reach underserved populations in Africa.
The acquisition is expected to result in business growth of 65,000 current policies and could add hundreds of thousands of people in Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Gambia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo by 2022. It will also expand Lami’s customer base in Malawi, where Bluewave provides policies to over 60,000 smallholder farmers through its microinsurance platform.
Lami is committed to bridging Africa’s insurance gap through strategies and technologies that make insurance more affordable, including offering “bite-sized” premiums. The startup’s recent funding and expansion efforts demonstrate its dedication to increasing insurance penetration across the continent and driving innovation in the insurance sector.
In addition to expanding its operations and customer base, the startup is also focused on using technology to make the insurance process more efficient and convenient for consumers. By digitizing the entire process, Lami is able to offer quick and easy access to insurance products, making it easier for people to protect themselves and their assets.
