Lumkani - 0 views
-
Lumkani, a Johannesburg-based startup that leverages proprietary hardware and a tech-enabled agent network to provide customers living in informal settlements within South Africa with insurance products that protect against loss of life, shelter, and assets in the case of a home fire. Lumkani, which means ‘be careful’ in Xhosa, originally began as a hardware company, deploying its first fire detector in late 2014. Within the first 18 months, they were able to prove that their technology “in 73 percent of cases was able to reduce the spreading of fires [beyond] the first home.” But it was not enough just to alert the community and stop the spreading of fires.
-
kenza_abdelhaq on 10 Feb 21Starting off as a hardware company that helped low-income families and informal settlements, Lumkani quickly shifted to the new technologies and partnered up with the insurance company Hollard to not only detect fire but to have access to fire insurance.
-
-
Destructive fires are a regular, and potentially devastating, occurrence for the approximately 10 million South Africans that live in informal settlement communities. These townships are particularly susceptible to the threat of fires due to the use of flammable building materials, the ubiquity of open flame fires, limited space between dwellings, and a lack of road infrastructure for adequate emergency response.
-
Such devices are a must have in regions where fires are regular. It was smart to present such a device in South Africa because almost 10 million South Africans are affected by such tragic events.
-
-
With that problem in mind, Lumkani, partnered with Hollard, a South African-based insurance company, to develop the world’s first hardware-enabled fire insurance specifically designed for informal settlements. To serve clients that had been ignored by traditional financial service providers previously, the company has created an efficient, engaging, and easy to manage experience for its low-income customers.
-
Lumkani developed hardware-enabled fire insurance to detect fires in informal settlements and partnered up with the insurance company Hollard to provide this segment with solutions and experience that was not made available to them by traditional financial service providers.
-
