OKO, a Malian insurtech startup, has raised a US$500,000 seed extension round to aid in its Ivory Coast expansion and preparation for a Series A round.
The global impact-tech accelerator Katapult and three business angels—Guillaume Leenhardt, Henry Allard, and Lionel Dorie—the founding partner of Augusta Energy Group—contributed to the extension round.
Formed in 2017, OKO creates reasonably priced mobile-based crop insurance products to give smallholder farmers the necessary financial security, irrespective of erratic climatic trends.
From 2020 to 2021, the number of paying clients for OKO increased by an amazing 6x, and the company will continue to broaden its reach in 2022 by adding more crops and forming new agreements with financial institutions that offer loans to insured farmers for agricultural production.
Since the Ivory Coast has always been a top priority market for us, we seized the chance to introduce OKO there this year. Simon Schwall, co-founder, and CEO of OKO, stated, “We have high objectives for the months to come and we are gathering outstanding partners to make this expansion a success.
In April 2021, OKO secured a seed investment for US$1.2 million.
The company is currently active in Mali and Uganda, and it has provided insurance to more than 15,000 farmers in those two countries.
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