Kenya’s Lami has acquired fellow Nairobi-based insurtech startup Bluewave in order to drive rapid growth and expand its presence to new African markets.

Founded by Jihan Abass in 2018, Lami is a digital insurance platform that enables partner businesses – including banks, tech companies, and other entities – to easily and seamlessly offer digital insurance products to their users via its API.

The startup, which last year was chosen by Catalyst Fund as part of the eighth cohort of its inclusive fintech accelerator and also secured US$1.8 million in seed funding, can also be used by partner businesses to manage their own insurance needs, and connects partner organisations with underwriters and allows them to offer a superior customer journey.

Bluewave, meanwhile, was founded by Adelaide Odhiambo in 2016, and has developed a robust micro-insurance system that offers users easy access to an array of insurance products. The acquisition will see Odhiambo join the Lami team as director of commercial partnerships.

Lami said the acquisition of Bluewave will help grow its presence across Africa by entering new markets where Bluewave is already operating, with an expected business growth of 65,000 current policies and potential growth of hundreds of thousands expected in 2022 across Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, Gambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The acquisition will also grow Lami’s customer segment and products – for example, in Malawi Bluewave reaches more than 60,000 smallholder farmers by providing them with access to policies through their dynamic micro-insurance platform.

“At Lami, our mission is to ensure Africans from all walks of life have access to affordable insurance products that allow them to build financial security. That is why we are making this investment to continue to support Bluewave’s customers and reach more partners across the continent and in-turn enable us to provide more people with the policies they require. We are very excited to work with Adelaide Odhiambo to revolutionise insurance products through technology and innovation,” Abass said.

“Africa has an ever-growing need for insurance solutions to help reduce the huge impact of the risk the lack of coverage creates by sinking its people into huge financial burdens. By joining forces with Lami, we look forward to moving faster in software development, marketing, expansion, and fast-track delivery of the most needed insurance solutions. Jihan is incredibly talented, brilliant, and exudes confidence and charisma, qualities that are excellent for strong leadership. I am indeed so excited to be joining forces with the team to solve a problem our continent so desperately requires,” Odhiambo said.