Co-Create the Next Generation of Inclusive Insurance
Jubilee Group × BimaLab Africa: Co-Create the Next Generation of Inclusive Insurance - Applications Now Open
BimaLab Africa is proud to announce a landmark partnership with Jubilee Group: the Product Co-Creation & Joint Pilot Initiative, an open call that takes validated BimaLab insurtech products and solutions that already work in the market and pairs them with a major insurer’s distribution muscle, balance sheet and regulatory standing. The goal is simple and ambitious: to make sure good ideas actually reach the millions of Africans, who remain uninsured.
If you are a BimaLab insurtech with a validated solution, this is a direct route from pilot to scale, with a committed insurer beside you from day one.
Why this partnership, and why now
Africa’s protection gap is not only a product problem. It is a distribution, trust and engagement problem. Insurtechs have built the tools to solve it; insurers have the customers, capital and licenses to deploy those tools at scale. This initiative deliberately brings the two together to co-create solutions, test them with real customers, and commercialize what works.
Each partner brings a distinct, complementary strength. BimaLab Africa, led by FSD Africa, is the continent’s leading insurance-innovation accelerator, having supported more than 135 startups across 28 African countries, collectively reaching over 6 million customers. In this partnership, BimaLab brings the validated insurtech pipeline, runs the co-creation and mentorship, provides regulatory and inclusion expertise, and links startups to its acceleration network and the Inclusive Insurtech Investment Fund (3iF).
Jubilee Group, East Africa’s largest insurer, participates through its innovation lab, Jhub. Jubilee brings enterprise distribution infrastructure, an extensive customer base, underwriting capacity, product and actuarial teams, the Maisha Fiti wellness platform, and the sandbox and API environments in which pilots will be built and tested. Jubilee co-designs the solutions, hosts the pilots, and provides the route and resourcing to commercial scale.
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Areas
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Description
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The opportunity
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Co-create and jointly pilot protection and wellness solutions with Jubilee Group across three priority pillars, with a funded pilot and a route to commercial scale across all 4 Jubilee markets in Africa
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Who can apply
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BimaLab Africa startups and alumni (any cohort) with a working, market-validated product and the capacity to integrate and pilot within 3-6 months.
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Cohort size
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A focused cohort of 6–8 startups. 2–3 will advance to commercial go-to-market after the pilot.
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Markets
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Pilots anchored in Kenya through Jubilee’s infrastructure, with potential to extend across Jubilee’s regional footprint as solutions scale.
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Deadline
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31 July 2026, 23:59 EAT
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Cost
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No application fee; participation is equity-free.
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- Co-design with Jubilee’s product, actuarial, technology and distribution teams.
- Sandbox & API access - digital sandbox environments and Jubilee API endpoints to build live integrations.
- A funded, structured pilot to real customers through Jubilee’s channels, with support to scale across Jubilee’s regional markets.
- Go-to-market support and active sales channels for solutions that prove out.
- A platform at the Insurtech Summit & Demo Day (February 2027), with exposure to investors and regulators.
- Regulatory-viability guidance from BimaLab and Jubilee throughout
- You are an alumnus or current-cohort startup of the BimaLab Africa Insurtech Accelerator.
- You bring a validated product; live or pilot-tested in the priority sectors, not a concept.
- You are technically ready to integrate via APIs within the program timeline.
- You can dedicate a team to the co-creation workshops and the pilot.
- You are willing to co-design commercial and data-sharing terms transparently.
- You comply with data protection, consumer-consent and Treating Customers Fairly principles.
- You are open to iterating your product for Jubilee’s segments and channels.
Across all pillars, we look for common building blocks: API-enabled integration, digital onboarding and eKYC, mobile money and digital payment integrations, data analytics and customer insights, scalable digital infrastructure, and customer retention and engagement capabilities. Pillar-specific capabilities are outlined below, you do not need all of them.
You may apply against one or more pillars. Be specific about which, and why your product fits, we are prioritizing a small number of BimaLab Insurtech startups with the strongest capabilities in each area.
Pillar 1: Bundled & Embedded Distribution Ecosystems
Objective: drive mass-market acquisition and grow lives covered by embedding protection inside ecosystems customers already use frequently. We want to build health, life and investment products bundled into telco, bank, SACCO, MFI, wallet, merchant, lending and healthcare journeys, sold as part of an existing experience rather than as standalone insurance.
- Opportunity areas: telco-led bundled insurance (airtime or data-bundle-linked cover, loyalty and reward-based cover, daily/weekly micro-cover); financial-ecosystem embedded insurance (SACCO member cover, bank account-linked cover, MFI borrower protection, wallet-embedded insurance); healthcare-ecosystem distribution (telemedicine-linked protection, pharmacy integrations); and credit and financing-bundled insurance (embedded cover in loan journeys, device and asset-financing protection, automated premium deductions, credit-life products).
- Capabilities that stand out: embedded-finance infrastructure, flexible collections, wallet and payment-ecosystem integrations, and the ability to plug into high-volume transaction ecosystems.
Pillar 2: SME Ecosystem Solutions
Objective: win group-based, scalable acquisition by co-creating solutions that solve real SME operational, financial and employee-wellbeing problems, with protection embedded inside. We want integrated solutions that address SME pain points like cashflow, business continuity, employee health, distributed through SME-focused platforms and their existing reach.
- Opportunity areas: employee protection and wellness (affordable group health and life, flexible contribution models, wellness-linked engagement); SME financial resilience (cashflow protection, business-continuity support, credit-linked protection); embedded protection within SME tools (payroll-integrated insurance, merchant-ecosystem integrations, protection linked to SME financing); and SME growth and loyalty ecosystems (rewards-driven wellness, member and community ecosystems, referral-led acquisition).
- Capabilities that stand out: SME operations infrastructure, payroll and HR integrations, merchant-ecosystem capabilities, SME analytics and engagement tools, and business-productivity enablement.
Pillar 3: Wellness & Engagement Ecosystems (Maisha Fiti 3.0)
Objective: drive sustained growth in active users and engagement on Jubilee’s Maisha Fiti platform through gamification, a loyalty-driven rewards ecosystem, and integrated wellness services that increase retention and cross-product adoption. The ambition is to position Maisha Fiti as a daily-use wellness and lifestyle companion, rewarding consistent app usage and healthy behaviors through a loyalty programme linked to tangible benefits (for example, discounts on health cover); embedding gamification such as challenges, streaks, badges and milestones to drive habit formation; creating personalized wellness journeys spanning physical health, financial wellbeing and lifestyle; and seamlessly integrating healthcare, wellness and financial protection into one engaging, always-on ecosystem.
- Opportunity areas: community and engagement (wellness communities, gamification, challenges and rewards, wellness journeys); lifestyle and experience (fitness and wellness experiences, partner-merchant ecosystems, loyalty and rewards infrastructure); financial wellness and future planning (savings and protection education, financial-wellness tools, goal-based engagement journeys); and healthcare and wellness integrations (telemedicine, drug delivery, wellness consultations, chronic-illness management, preventive healthcare).
- Capabilities that stand out: engagement infrastructure (gamification, habit-building, community), healthcare enablement (telemedicine, drug delivery, wellness tracking), ecosystem and marketplace expansion, and behavioral and AI-driven personalization.
Who Should Apply
- You are a BimaLab Africa startup or alumnus, current cohort or a graduate of any past cohort.
- You have a validated product: live in market or pilot-tested, with evidence of usage, integrations or customers not a concept or wireframe.
- You can integrate and pilot within the program timeline: your tech is API-ready or close to it, and you have a team able to commit.
- You serve, or can credibly reach, underserved and emerging segments relevant to at least one pillar.
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We Assess
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What we are looking for
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Weight
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Strategic fit
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Clear, specific fit with one or more pillars and Jubilee’s underserved-segment goals.
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25%
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Product validation & traction
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Evidence the product works, usage, customers, integrations, results to date.
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25%
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Technical & integration readiness
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API-readiness, security, and the ability to integrate and pilot within the timeline.
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20%
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Scale & distribution potential
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A realistic path to high-volume reach and lower acquisition cost through Jubilee’s channels.
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15%
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Team capacity and commitment
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A team that can dedicate people to co-creation, the pilot and execution.
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15%
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- Company snapshot — name, year founded, BimaLab cohort/year, country, team size, website.
- Product overview — what it does, the problem it solves, and its current stage (live / piloting / metrics).
- Pillar(s) you are applying to and a short statement of fit for each.
- Traction & validation — customers, lives covered, integrations, partners, usage or pilot results.
- Technical readiness — integration approach (APIs, payments, onboarding/eKYC), data handling and security posture.
- Co-creation proposal — what you would co-create with Jubilee, and what you would need from the partnership to pilot.
- Executive team & references, plus any current funding or commercial partnerships.
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Stage
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What happens
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Indicative Timing
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EOI & shortlisting
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Open call, EOI applications review and a portfolio audit against the three pillars; longlist confirmed.
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July - August 2026
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Cohort selection
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Joint selection of 6–8 startups; sandbox and API access granted; regulatory-viability checks.
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August 2026
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Co-creation workshops
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Co-design of live distribution loops; refinement of pricing and revenue-sharing models.
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September - October 2026
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Pilot
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Sandbox testing, integration fixes, business-case vetting and a closed pilot in Kenya.
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October 2026 - January 2027
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Summit & Demo Day
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Pitch to the selection panel; top 2–3 confirmed for go-to-market and scale.
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February 2027
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Commercial scale (GTM)
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Live, revenue-generating pilots scale through Jubilee’s distribution infrastructure.
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From March 2027
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Will I have to give up equity?
No. BimaLab Africa is equity-free, and participation does not require giving equity to Jubilee Group, BimaLab or FSD Africa. Any future investment for example via the 3iF fund or acquisition by Jubilee Group is a separate, voluntary conversation.
Who owns the intellectual property?
You keep your core IP. The product you bring remains yours; jointly created assets and the commercial, data and IP terms for the pilot are agreed in writing in a partnership agreement before any pilot begins.
How do the commercials work?
Revenue-sharing and pricing models are co-designed during the workshops, set per partnership, and governed by a signed service level agreement between the Insurtech and Jubilee, there is no one-size-fits-all deal. The aim is a sustainable, commercial arrangement, not grant dependency.
Who owns the customer and the data?
Customers acquired through Jubilee’s channels and underwriting are insured by Jubilee. Data is handled under Kenya’s Data Protection Act with clear consent, and data-use terms are defined in the partnership agreement. Consumer consent and Treating Customers Fairly are non-negotiable.
Is this exclusive?
Selection for a pilot may involve agreed exclusivity for a specific product or channel for a defined period, discussed openly during co-creation. It does not require you to stop serving your other partners, insurers or markets.
Does it cost anything to participate or is there funding?
There is no application fee. The program funds the structured pilot and provides go-to-market support for solutions that prove out. You cover your own product and team costs, as you would in any commercial partnership.
Do I need to fit all three pillars?
No. A focused, excellent fit for one pillar is welcome. We give weight to startups whose capabilities span more than one area, but breadth never beats a strong, relevant solution.
Which markets does this cover?
The pilots are anchored in Kenya through Jubilee’s infrastructure, with potential to extend across Jubilee’s regional footprint as solutions scale. Any BimaLab insurtech across Africa with a validated solution and a willingness to scale to Kenya is encouraged to apply.
How to apply
Submit your Expression of Interest via the Application form on bimalab.org by 31 July 2026, 23:59 EAT. Shortlisted startups will be contacted for a short interview and technical review before cohort selection in August 2026.
Please note: submitting an EOI does not create a partnership, joint venture or binding commitment to launch a product, and participation in workshops and pilot discussions does not guarantee commercial deployment, definitive agreements will be required before implementation. Each participating entity remains responsible for maintaining the licenses and approvals its activities require, and must operate only within the scope permitted by applicable law.
Jubilee Group and BimaLab Africa are proud to build this together and we are looking for the insurtechs who will build the next chapter of inclusive insurance with us. If that is you, we look forward to your application.