Gates Foundation to help Jamii expand across Africa
Jamii has won backing to develop its micro-health insurance platform for Africa’s low-income sector. The Tanzanian start-up was named winner of a regional leg of the Seedstars World competition and will now compete in Switzerland for investment of up to $1m. The potential funding would be in addition to a $250,000 grant received from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which is being used to launch the platform in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.
Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Tanzanian micro-health insurance startup Jamii is heading to the global final of the Seedstars World competition next year. But the trip to Switzerland is just one part of an international agenda that will see the startup launch across Africa.

Jamii, a mobile micro-health insurance product for the low income and informal sector, was named the winner of the Tanzanian leg of the Seedstars competition over the weekend, and will now head to Switzerland to pitch for up to US$1 million in investment.

But it will also be expanding across Africa, on the back of grant money from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation the US$250,000 it already has committed of its US$500,000 funding round. Jamii will launch in five other African countries in 2017, namely Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa.

The startup, which launched in January 2015, has built a mobile policy management platform that performs all the administration activities of an insurer, and allows users to access cheap insurance via USSD.