S.A’s Insuretech Ctrl Tones Up Ties With Santam Insurance After Recent Undisclosed Series A
South Africa’s insurance tech company Ctrl raised undisclosed Series A funding from Santam Insurance, a Bellville-based leading short-term insurance company. The fundraiser which is a minority investment and was completed in November last year, will help the startup achieve the required scale to be a successful insurance firm.
Insurance To Insurance?
It may beg questions why a larger insurance company has picked interest in a digital insurance app-enabled company. Ctrl, which enables South Africans to request and accept quotes from different users, has been invested in on the backs of its technological advancement and drive for innovation.
In an exclusive interview with WeeTracker, Pieter Erasmus, Co-founder of Ctrl revealed that: “Santam’s primary objective for the investment in our holding company, Ctrl Investment Holdings (CIH), is our ability to possibly apply our technology to their advice (broker) distribution platforms. This could enhance their strong intermediary distribution channels which they want to support further.
Ctrl Financial Intermediaries (CFI, wholly owned by CIH) is an independent brokerage, regulated by the FSCA and will continue to remain steadfast in our ability to provide independent advice. This independence will give clients quotes (not aggregating rates) from many reputable insurers supported by non-biased algorithm driven advice”.
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Stronger Ties
Erasmus says that it is the culture of a startup to recognise that funding can be critical to the realisation of its business’ objectives. Also, Ctrl’s business model which is tailored to focus only on the advice (broker) space, requires strong ties with insurers. As products providers, this requirement has led the insuretech to engage in further discussions towards the formalisation of a new partnership. The financial development with Santam is the product of those deliberations.
According to Peter Erasmus, the investment will help Ctrl – which was started by a group of friends who wanted to make insuring stuff less frustrating – be able to afford and appoint the required skills needed as well as execute a well-defined marketing strategy within the business.
