ETAP Completes $1.5m Pre-Seed Funding to Enhance Car Insurance Usage in Africa

ETAP, an insurtech startup that makes it easier to buy and claim insurance, has raised $1.5 million in pre-seed funding to expand its team and drive the adoption of much-needed car insurance throughout Africa.

Starting in Nigeria, the new funding will help ETAP’s game-changing app, which allows drivers to buy insurance in 90 seconds, complete claims in 3 minutes or less, and get rewarded for safe driving and avoiding accidents, to be rolled out.

Mobility 54 (the Venture Capital arm of Toyota Tsusho and CFAO Group) led the pre-seed funding round, which also included Tangerine Insurance, Graph Ventures (which invested in Clubhouse), Newmont, and other angel investors.

ETAP will also look into other opportunities to provide much-needed insurance services to car owners in other countries across the continent, in collaboration with a wide range of automotive value chain players.

 Despite a long-standing regulation that requires car insurance and over 100,000 car accidents reported between January 2019 and December 2021, only one in every five cars in Nigeria is currently insured. The complexities of purchasing and claiming insurance have resulted in widespread dissatisfaction with traditional insurance companies and products, with many car owners opting to go without insurance. With ETAP, the entire insurance buying and claiming process takes place entirely on a smartphone, resulting in a seamless and enjoyable insurance experience for users.

ETAP employs machine learning to create intelligent risk profiles for each driver, allowing them to achieve lower premiums by driving safely. The driving experience is gamified using advanced telematics to improve driving behavior, and drivers can earn Safe Driving Points that can be exchanged for shopping vouchers for the most popular retail outlets, fuel, cinema and concert tickets, and other exciting experiences. Drivers can also choose from daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and annual coverage plans based on their needs. In the unfortunate event of an accident, they simply take a picture of the damaged part of the vehicle using the app, and the artificial intelligence processes the claim based on previously uploaded images.

The app includes geolocation tags, timestamps, and other features to help prevent fraudulent claims, as well as crash notification, emergency support, and other useful features.

ETAP has insured over 130,000 individual trips and over 500,000 kilometers in car journeys since its beta launch in November 2021, which is more than eight times the total distance of paved roads in Nigeria.

“Like any other digital service, we believe Nigerians should be able to buy and claim car insurance without having to ‘call a guy,'” says Ibraheem Babalola, CEO and founder of ETAP. We also believe that rewarding good drivers can help to improve driving and make our roads safer. This is why we created Africa’s most powerful car insurance app, and we are thrilled to have raised these funds to bring on more users. Too often, the process of purchasing and claiming insurance in Africa is so disconnected from most people’s daily lives, but we are changing the game and making the process just as enjoyable as any other experience that consumers access on their mobile phones.

“ETAP is addressing many challenges that impact the automotive experience in Africa, and we are excited to support and work with them to bring their innovation to more drivers across the continent,” said Yumi Takagi, Project Manager at Mobility 54. ETAP, we believe, will take on this important role and use their powerful technology to revolutionize the automotive insurance industry.