SA insurtech startup Root raises $3m seed funding round
Root, a Cape Town-based startup building infrastructure for the digital insurance economy, has closed a US$3 million seed funding round to expand into new markets.
Founded in 2016, Root is a cloud-native end-to-end insurance platform that enables organisations of any size to build, sell and manage digital insurance products and unlock modern engagement channels.
The startup, which packages the “hard things” in insurance and exposes programmable insurance products through easy-to-use APIs, powers some of the country’s largest affinity insurance players in South Africa, and now plans to expand overseas after raising funding.
The US$3 million seed round comes from Invenfin, Base Capital, Savannah Fund, P1 Ventures, Luno, and FireID, as well as a select group of high impact angel investors. Root intends using the capital to roll out its flexible low-code digital insurance platform in new geographies.
“As Root continues to unlock innovation in insurance, we are making it easier for innovators to put customers first and take the industry into the age of truly personalised and convenient embedded products,” said Louw Hopley, the startup’s chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder. “Closing this funding means that we can power more innovators, globally, and accelerate the process of transformation.”
Stuart Gast, CEO at Invenfin, said his team had been following Root closely over the last few years and that he was delighted to be partnering with the startup as it entered this new phase of scaling.
“We are confident that Root is positioned to have a massively positive impact on insurance, both in South Africa and abroad,” he said.
