Ted Pantone Is Building an Insurance Business Designed for the Millions of Africans Still Left Uninsured

For millions of Africans, insurance remains something they either cannot easily access, cannot afford or do not encounter in the places where they already conduct their daily financial transactions.

Ted Pantone is building Turaco around that problem.

The Kenya-based insurtech has developed an embedded insurance model that allows people to access affordable medical and life insurance through companies and services they already use. The company has now attracted investment from 3IF Ventures, marking the pan-African investment firm’s first deal through its Inclusive Insurance Investment Fund. The investment amount was not disclosed.

Founded in 2019 by Pantone and Peter Gross, Turaco is taking a different approach to insurance distribution. Rather than requiring customers to navigate traditional insurance processes, the company integrates its technology into the platforms and services of partner businesses.

Customers can therefore encounter insurance while using products they already understand.

Turaco works with partners including telecommunications company Safaricom, asset-financing company M-KOPA and microfinance institution ASA International. Through these partnerships, insurance products can be offered directly within existing digital and financial workflows.

That distribution model is at the heart of Turaco’s business.

The company provides technology that supports underwriting, policy administration and claims, while its partners provide access to large groups of potential customers. This allows Turaco to reach people who may never have walked into a traditional insurance office or actively searched for an insurance product.

Turaco says it has now reached more than 8 million people across six African markets and recently expanded into Pakistan, taking its model beyond Africa for the first time.

The company’s growth has been built around the idea that lack of demand is not necessarily the biggest barrier to insurance adoption. Instead, the challenge can be making insurance affordable, understandable and available through channels that fit into people’s existing lives.

That is particularly significant in Africa, where more than one billion people are estimated to have no access to insurance coverage, according to FSD Africa. The organisation identifies three structural barriers — awareness, accessibility and affordability — that continue to limit insurance uptake across the continent.

Turaco’s model attempts to address those barriers simultaneously.

By embedding insurance into existing products and services, the company reduces the friction involved in purchasing coverage. Its technology also allows insurance products to be designed around the needs of specific customer groups rather than simply adapting traditional insurance products for digital channels.

The business has already attracted substantial institutional backing. Turaco raised a US$2 million seed round in 2020 and a US$10 million Series A in 2022, funding its expansion across African markets.

The latest investment comes from a fund created specifically around the opportunity in Africa’s insurance market.

3IF Ventures reached a US$12 million first close for its Inclusive Insurance Investment Fund in June 2026, backed by FSD Africa Investments and regional reinsurer ZEP-RE. The fund is targeting a final size of US$30 million and invests from pre-seed through Series B in technology-enabled insurance businesses across Africa.

For 3IF Ventures, Turaco represents the first deployment of capital from the fund and a bet on a company that has already demonstrated the ability to distribute insurance at significant scale.

For Turaco, the partnership also brings specialised insurance and reinsurance expertise as it expands into new markets.

“We are excited to welcome the 3IF Ventures team as partners in Turaco,” Pantone said, describing the firm’s insurance expertise as valuable as the company enters its next phase of growth.

Anthony Chaillet, general partner at 3IF Ventures, said Turaco had demonstrated traction and a clear expansion strategy.

The investment comes as Turaco looks beyond its established African markets. Its expansion into Pakistan is an early test of whether a model developed around African insurance gaps can work in other emerging markets where traditional insurance distribution also faces challenges.

For Pantone, the long-term ambition is considerably larger than building another African insurtech. Turaco has previously set a target of eventually providing insurance to one billion people, reflecting the scale of the market the company believes remains underserved.

Reaching that ambition will require more than technology. Insurance is heavily regulated, dependent on strong underwriting and claims systems, and ultimately built on customer trust.

But Turaco’s growth demonstrates one possible route around a longstanding problem: instead of waiting for underserved customers to come looking for insurance, take insurance to the platforms, businesses and services they already use.

That is the business Pantone and his team are building — an insurance infrastructure that makes financial protection easier to access, easier to distribute and potentially capable of reaching millions more people across emerging markets.