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Kenyan insurer Jubilee Group and development agency FSD Africa have partnered with seven InsurTech startups to develop and test affordable insurance for people who lack formal cover.
The target groups are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), informal sector workers, farmers, and low-income households.
The seven firms will work with Jubilee for eight weeks to co-create products. Joint pilots will start in Kenya in November 2026.
The partnership will test new ways to distribute low-cost insurance, protect SMEs, and link customers to health and wellness services. Jubilee says the strongest solutions could later move to other East African markets.
The companies were selected from the BimaLab Africa Insurtech Accelerator alumni network. They will focus on three main areas: affordable bundled and embedded insurance, insurance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and wellness models that help connect customers to care. At Jubilee, this work will be managed by J-Hub, the group’s innovation and technology division.
“There is a large group of Kenyans who work, earn and run businesses every day but still have little or no insurance coverage. We need to meet people where they are, with products that are affordable, relevant and simple to access. Working with these seven insurtechs gives us a practical way to test different products and distribution models with customers and learn what works. We can then take the strongest solutions to scale as we grow our customer base and bring more people into formal insurance,” said Juan Cazcarra, Deputy Group CEO of Jubilee Group.
Founded in 1937 Jubilee Holdings Limited is a financial services group in East Africa specialising in insurance and investment solutions. With over 89 years of experience, it serves more than 1.4 million customers in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Burundi.
The program includes seven startups:
Dukatech Solutions
HQ: Nairobi, Kenya
Through its Shopokoa platform, Dukatech provides food and shopping baskets to waste pickers, refugees, and informal workers. It will use its customer and merchant network to test bundled and embedded insurance.
Aura Insure Technologies
HQ: Dubai, UAE
Aura is expanding into Africa with software for SME insurance underwriting and distribution. Its APIs let insurers and partners quote, underwrite, onboard, issue, service, and renew covers digitally.
Inclusivity Solutions
HQ: Cape Town, South Africa
Inclusivity designs embedded insurance for emerging consumers and operates in more than 10 African countries. Its open API platform, ASPin, handles sales, policy administration, premium collection, and claims.
DPE
HQ: Kenya
DPE is a health engagement platform that reaches households by SMS, WhatsApp, and voice. Its Interch platform has given more than 300,000 households access to trusted health information. DPE will work on the wellness and engagement part of the programme.
Fiinovate
HQ: Kenya
Fiinovate builds credit-linked insurance through its FinHub and Fin Shield platforms. It will explore protection products to help SMEs and borrowers withstand financial shocks.
Agrails
HQ: Kenya
Agrails runs a generative AI and parametric platform in more than three African countries. It uses climate data to assess climate risk and will look at embedded protection models based on that data.
Ibisa Network
HQ: Luxembourg
Ibisa makes parametric insurance for farmers and renewable energy operators across Africa. It uses satellite data and AI analytics to trigger automatic payouts after extreme weather.
“The challenge is not simply creating more insurance products. It is making sure those products reach people who need them, at a price they can afford and through channels they already use. Kenya provides a strong market for testing new approaches to inclusive insurance. By bringing established insurers together with insurtechs that understand technology, distribution and specific customer needs, BimaLab can help move promising ideas from development into real markets,” said Elias Omondi, Principal, Sustainable Insurance at FSD Africa.
