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3IF Ventures, Africa’s first impact venture capital fund dedicated exclusively to insurance startups, has secured $12 million in its first close. The first close marks a major step toward channelling institutional and private capital into one of the continent’s most neglected financial sectors.
The fund is co-anchored by FSD Africa Investments (FSDAi) and ZEP-RE (PTA Reinsurance Company), and will provide equity capital from pre-Seed to Series B to early-stage businesses across Africa.
The fund targets a final close of $30 million and plans to make between 15 and 20 portfolio investments. It will also operate a technical assistance facility sized at roughly 20 percent of total fund commitments, providing investees with hands-on support beyond capital.
The fund’s investment thesis is organised around four thematic verticals: climate and disaster resilience, agriculture and rural livelihoods, digital health and wellbeing, and SME and asset protection. The fund says these areas represent the structural barriers that have historically kept insurance out of reach for most Africans. Over one billion people on the continent currently lack access to any form of insurance cover.
Over its lifetime, the fund is targeting the issuance of more than 5.9 million new insurance policies, improved financial resilience for over 3.5 million households and SMEs, and the creation, sustenance, or retention of more than 1.7 million jobs.
3IF Ventures is structured as a blended investment vehicle, incorporating a catalytic capital junior tranche designed to unlock additional private capital. The fund is led by Anthony Chaillet and Dr. Mario Wilhelm, who together bring over 40 years of combined experience in reinsurance, insurance, and investment globally. This architecture is central to the fund’s strategy of attracting a broader pool of investors to a sector that has long lacked dedicated institutional backing.
“Reaching First Close with FSD Africa Investments and ZEP-RE on the same cap table is a market signal: impact and private capital are now investing in the same insurance technology pioneers,” said Chaillet and Wilhelm, General Partners, 3IF Ventures.
“Africa’s protection gap is the most under-served commercial opportunity of the decade, closing it requires patient capital, local risk capacity and industry-grade portfolio support, working in concert. With a pre-qualified pipeline of fifteen insurance ventures across ten African markets, we are ready to deploy capital and look forward to engaging with strategic private and public partners as we enter the next stage of our growth,” they added.
FSDAi’s participation builds on its BimaLab programme, through which it has supported a pipeline of 135 early-stage insurtech businesses. Anne-Marie Chidzero, Chief Investment Officer at FSDAi, said the investment reflected confidence that the sector had matured sufficiently for institutional capital to enter at scale.
“As the first investment vehicle dedicated to inclusive insurance in Africa, 3IF Ventures brings institutional rigour to a segment that has long lacked it. This first close proves that when sector expertise, the right capital structure and the right partners align, the protection gap becomes an investable proposition,” she said in a statement.
ZEP-RE, a pan-African reinsurer and specialised institution of COMESA with operations in over 45 African countries, committed to extending support to investee companies beyond its financial contribution.
“Beyond the capital injection, ZEP-RE will offer further support to the investee companies through its technical experience in the (re)insurance ecosystem such as product design and leverage off its existing networks among primary insurers and regulators to provide underwriting capacity and an enabling regulatory environment for investees to achieve shared success across the continent,” said Hope Murera, Managing Director and Group CEO, ZEP-RE (PTA Reinsurance Company).
