Naspers has been making news headlines in the past few weeks, with Naspers’ subsidiary Prosus coming under pressure due to regulatory scrutiny from the Chinese government (and the possible impact on Tencent). However, despite many uncertainties for Naspers, Naspers Foundry, launched in 2019, brings exciting news. On Aug. 4, it announced that it had made its seventh investment, this time around R120 million ($8.3 million U.S.) in insurtech company Naked.
This announcement comes mere weeks after its first insurtech investment of R34 million ($2.37 million U.S) in digital short-term insurance advise platform Ctrl, which was announced July 21.
Founded in 2017, Ctrl Technologies connects consumers, brokers, and insurers, while Naked provides complete insurance offerings on one site. Naked, which launched in Apr. 2018, is the first fully digital insurance tech company in South Africa and aims to provide an affordable, convenient and transparent insurance environment for all consumers.
Industry expert William Theron, CTO of Kuda Insurance and FX services, said of the South African insurtech market, “We see the interest and investment into South African insurtech start-ups as a logical and proactive approach. At its core, insurtech challenges the status quo leading to innovative approaches that can truly disrupt and elevate our industry…Technology does not need to replace the human factor to be successful, in fact we see technology as a way to enhance it.”
The overlap between these two Naspers Foundry insurtech start-ups may seem small, but given the bigger landscape within a competitive short-term insurance environment, this may lead to more robust contenders to compete against short-term insurance market leaders, e.g. OUTsurance and Virseker etc., in the future.
– Aimgroup