SOUTH AFRICA – Cape Town-based digital insurance startup Root has teamed up with Andela, the global network for remote engineering talent, and financial services company Momentum Health Solutions to ensures Andela’s clients access the best health insurance cover options in South Africa.
The global engineering network Andela was launched in Nigeria in 2014 to help companies to build remote engineering teams by providing them with access to the best software engineers in the world. It has a global talent marketplace connecting technologists in emerging markets with job opportunities.
The company achieved a US$1.5-billion valuation in its latest US$200 million series E round of funding in 2021 led by Softbank Vision Fund 2 with participation from new investor Whale Rock and other existing investors.
With new capital, Andela has expanded its talent offering beyond software development by investing in health products for technologists to simplify global hiring and make engineers’ lives easier in partnership with South Africa-based firms Root and Momentum Health Solution.
The insurance products on our platform are underwritten by our network of leading insurance providers and our customers never have to deal with an insurer. Root aims to enable insurance to be placed seamlessly in user journeys where the insurance need is highly relevant
The partnership with Root and Momentum Health will increase the value Andela provides to remote contractors by making it easy for them to access quality medical aid directly from the Andela web portal while allowing South Africans access to affordable health insurance offerings.
Moreover, Momentum Medical Scheme’s medical aid options that have been available to the Andela user base in South Africa over the Root Application Programming Interface (API) since April 2022 will now be offered to Andela’s clients across more regions in time.
Andela will leverage Root’s technologically advanced digital solutions to enable digital insurance products to be seamlessly integrated into their customer base product offerings to simplify global hiring and make engineers’ lives easier.
Root will also provide Andela with a hosted front-end application that can be embedded into the Andela user experience to onboard Andela users onto a Momentum Medical Scheme medical aid plan where users will have access to information and medical cover options directly through the application.
“The insurance products on our platform are underwritten by our network of leading insurance providers and our customers never have to deal with an insurer. Root aims to enable insurance to be placed seamlessly in user journeys where the insurance need is highly relevant,” said Root CEO Louw Hopley.
He further explained that the digital insurance startup works with customers to identify opportunities in their value chain that can be solved with insurance and, in Andela’s case, medical aid while noting that insurance is historically sold, not bought.
“Root’s API packages all the building blocks needed to launch a fully compliant insurance product in a matter of days. The medical aids can be launched almost immediately with no risk, no new systems and at near-zero cost,” Hopley added.
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