In order to expand to Ivory Coast and prepare for a Series A, the Mali insurtech firm OKO has secured US $500,000 in a seed extension round.
In spite of erratic climatic tendencies, OKO, a 2017 startup, creates reasonably priced mobile-based crop insurance solutions to give smallholder farmers the protection they require. Over 15,000 farmers have received insurance from the firm, which has operations in Mali and Uganda.
With additional crops covered and new collaborations made with financial institutions that offer agricultural loans to insured farmers, OKO experienced a remarkable 6x rise in the number of paying clients from 2020 to 2021. In 2022, the company will continue to broaden its reach.
With current partners Orange, Allianz, and Touton, it has now secured a US$500,000 expansion round and declared ambitions to start in the Ivory Coast. The global impact-tech accelerator Katapult and three business angels—Guillaume Leenhardt, CEO of Gentle Finance, Henry Allard, CEO of Filhet-Allard Maritime, and Lionel Dorie, founding partner of Augusta Energy Group—contributed to the expansion round. In April 2021, OKO got a seed investment from a US company for US $1.2 million.
“Ivory Coast has always been a priority market for us, so when we saw the opportunity to launch OKO there this year, we jumped on it. We are bringing strong partners to make this expansion success and we have big ambitions for the months to come,” said Simon Schwall, Co-founder and CEO of OKO.
