Curacel, a Nigerian startup that builds technology to power insurance companies, has raised $450,000 in a pre-seed funding round.
The startup has been in existence since 2018 and bills itself as a leading claims and fraud detection platform in Africa, helping insurance companies track fraud, waste and abuse in their businesses. Their solutions cover health, travel and auto insurance.
Curacel lists AXA Mansard, Liberty Health, Old Mutual and a few other insurance companies across Africa among its clients, and intends to be present in 10 African countries by the end of 2021 using the money it has raised.
Henry Mascot, Curacel’s co-founder and CEO, defines the company’s vision as “improving insurance inclusion across Africa.”
They are driving that mission by deploying cloud-based tools and APIs to ensure that insurance companies operate efficiently. That means helping such companies only pay claims for the correct treatment, appropriate medications and recommended patient therapies.
Curacel has helped their clients reduce fraud, waste and abuse claims payouts by up to 25% and saved them a total of $320,000, according to information on their website. They also claim to have processed more than 700,000 claims and have the capacity to process an infinite number.
Curacel’s pre-seed round was led by Atlantica Ventures and Consonance with participation from Kepple Ventures and other African angel investors.
“The African insurance market represents a significant growth opportunity and we are delighted to be partnering with Curacel to drive growth in this sector,” says IK Kanu, Partner at Atlantica Ventures.
“There is an opportunity to create an entirely new market of products and services here and we look forward to supporting the team to improve health outcomes across the continent.”
Mobolaji Adeoye, Managing Partner at Consonance, echoed Kanu’s thoughts, saying Curacel “has what it takes to be market leaders.”
