In a move that resembles a vote of confidence for the start-up, Allianz Africa renewed its multi-year partnership with OKO. Allianz and OKO initially signed an agreement in 2019 to test OKO’s concept in Mali. OKO offered an affordable and automated climate insurance accessible for the first time via mobile phone to smallholder farmers. 4 years later it is the most popular crop insurance in Mali. OKO uses parametric insurance technology, meaning that insurance claims are automatically validated and paid if satellite data shows that the weather conditions were very detrimental to the agricultural activity. It covers events such as droughts and floods.
As previously, the collaboration consists in OKO bringing its data-science expertise and its mobile distribution technology, while Allianz will assist in underwriting and re-insuring the crop insurance products. This new version of the partnership is meant to prepare for geographical expansion to new countries in the continent, and to strengthen the link between the two organizations. In fact, OKO already expanded to Uganda (with Jubilee-Allianz) and Ivory Coast (with Allianz Côte d’Ivoire). OKO and Allianz also won together the Ambitious Insurer award at the 2023 InsurTech Insight conference.
OKO’s activities have also widened, and OKO now works with agro-industrial companies such as AB InBev, Olam and Touton. OKO’s insurance protects farmers from the consequences of droughts and floods, and therefore secures the supply chain for large buyers. OKO also demonstrated its ability to generate positive impact in financial inclusion and climate resilience for vulnerable populations, which helps large food, textile, or beverage companies to achieve their sustainability objectives.