- Babalola started building Etap last year frustrated by the complexities and delays involved in purchasing insurance. In his own words, he set out to make buying insurance and making claims as easy as taking a picture – hence the name Etap.
Only 21% of the 12 million registered vehicles on Nigerian roads have genuine motor insurance, as the rest either have fake certificates (owners are mostly unaware) or are not covered at all.
This report also states that a number of car owners holding genuine insurance policies also fail to renew them when they expire, a contravention of the law in Nigeria, which demands that every vehicle must be covered by insurance. All these challenges stem from the fact that most transactions in the industry are still done manually and, most often, through agents, which further exacerbates the problems.
To bridge the gap, insurtechs like Etap have over the last few years emerged in Nigeria, and across Africa, to smoothen the process of buying insurance and making claims. Etap claim to enable motor vehicle owners to purchase insurance in 90 seconds and complete claims in three minutes.https://jac.yahoosandbox.com/1.0.1/safeframe.html
The startup is now on an expansion drive across the West African country following a $1.5 million pre-seed funding in a round led by Mobility 54; the venture capital arm of Toyota Tsusho and CFAO Group.
“We have great products and excellent value propositions. But we know that the products and value proposition can be greater and that’s why we sought out partners that we have right now. Our plan is to have the most preferred insurance products and to grow and scale this across Africa. I feel like we are perfectly positioned to achieve that,” Etap founder and CEO Ibraheem Babalola told TechCrunch.
Tangerine Insurance also Etap’s underwriter, Graph Ventures, Newmont and several other angel investors participated in the round.
