Pula, an InsureTech service provider that specialises in digital and agricultural insurance to de-risk smallholder farmers across Africa, has closed a US$6 million Series A fund with TLcom Capital.
According to a statement to the media issued yesterday, the new investment would be used to scale-up operations in Pula’s existing 13 markets across Africa.
The Series A fund was led by TLcom Capital, with the participation of Women’s World Banking.
Currently, Pula has impacted over 4.3 million farmers on the African continent and the new funding would also help to propel its expansion into Asia to power resilience and profitability for Asian small-holder farmers, reads the statement.
Launched in 2015 by Rose Goslinga and Thomas Njeru, Pula designs and delivers innovative agricultural insurance and digital products to help small-holder farmers endure climate risks.
Other services include improving small-holders’ farming practices and bolster their incomes over time.
“For small-holder farmers in emerging markets, the traditional method of calculating insurance through farm visits is often unaffordable for farmers, meaning these farmers are often neglected from financial protection against climate risks,” the statement read.
“Through its area yield index insurance product, Pula leverages machine learning, crop cuts experiments and data points relating to weather patterns and farmer losses to build products which caters for a variety of risks including drought, excessive rainfall, pests and diseases.”
Pula’s key clientele include the likes of the World Food Programme, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Zambian government and the Kenyan government.
Speaking on the new fundraise, Pula co-founder and co-chief executive officer Rose Goslinga said: “when Thomas and I launched Pula in 2015, we had one goal in mind: to build and deliver scalable insurance solutions for Africa’s 700 million small-holder farmers and with our latest funding, now is the time to break into new ground.
“In our five years since launching, we’ve built strong traction for our products but the fact remains that across Africa and other emerging markets, there are still millions of small-holder farmers with risks to their livelihoods that have not been covered.”
Meanwhile, Maurizio Caio, managing partner and founder at TLcom Capital, said in Pula, his organisation had found a company addressing a hugely underserved market in one of Africa’s key drivers of growth.
“This [is] an opportunity for major economic upside. The potential for the insurance market for small-holder farmers in Africa is huge and under the leadership of Rose and Thomas, Pula has rapidly established a strong presence throughout the continent and has a number of high-profile clients on their books,” said Caio.
“We are confident of Pula’s potential for growth in spite of the pandemic and look forward to partnering with them as they execute the next phase of their journey.”
