How Venture Capital from Boost Africa Programme is Supporting Insurance Uptake in Kenya

Insurance penetration in Africa is significantly lower than the global average, with rates below 3% in many countries outside of South Africa, which has a much higher rate of 11.54%.

Closer to home, Kenya’s insurance penetration rate stood at approximately 2.2% as of H1 2025, slightly lower than the 2.4% recorded in the same period in 2024. This penetration rate is below the global average. It is attributed to factors like low awareness, high premiums, lack of trust, a poor saving culture, and the perception of insurance as a luxury or a regulatory requirement rather than a necessity.

When you talk to the majority of Kenyans, and around the continent, one of the major concerns that has hindered the progress within the insurance sector is the high entry premiums for the average low-income citizen and the time taken for insurance companies to process claims. In most cases, it is often a harrowing experience trying to follow up claims with an insurance service provider.

With that in mind, imagine an insurance service provider that processes claims within 4 hours. Unheard of, Right? This is the story of Turaco Insurance with the help of the European Investment Bank through the Boost Africa Initiative.

“Turaco is a social-impact company, and we are here to ensure mass market, especially the low-income consumers across the market. We are paying claims pretty often within 4 hours, and it is always surprising to our customers,” said Ted Pantone, CEO and Co-Founder of Turaco.

Caroline Wairimu, a customer with Turaco, asserts this fact. When she was admitted, she said she submitted a document to Turaco via WhatsApp, and hours later, her funds to cover the medical expenses were wired. “I was asked to send the required documents via WhatsApp, and the medical fee was sent,” she says.

According to Mr. Pantone, the European Investment Bank (EIB), through the Boost Africa Initiative, has played a huge role in ensuring the success of Turaco within the continent. “We ended up raising investments from AfricInvest, a private equity fund backed by EIB… they were a huge part of getting us the capital that we needed,” he said.

“We had some challenges at some point, and we really needed finances to be able to solve them. When we talked to AfricInvest about the challenges around upskilling our staff, they introduced us to the Boost Africa programme, which was offering technical assistance to entrepreneurs. Boost Africa came alongside us and met the specific need in the business at that time,” he added.

With the financial and non-financial support of Boost Africa, Pantone says Turaco has now grown from 100,000 users to about 1.6 million users across the continent, and has grown its premium pay from 1.5 million dollars to 12 million dollars.

As Edward Claessen, the Head of the Regional Hub for East Africa, European Investment Bank, puts it, “We are here to support startups and SMEs, but also to help young entrepreneurs launch their business. It is not only that we bring money, but we also bring technical assistance and technical support. This makes it  a unique proposition for young African entrepreneurs.”

Read Also: Kenya’s Venture Capital Moment: How To Access Funding, And What The EIB Has Actually Done To Move The Needle