SA’s Pineapple, Tautona.AI Listed on Sønr and Insurance Post’s Insurtech

• Intelligent automation company Tautona.AI and insurtech Pineapple have been included on UK’s digital transformation platform Sønr and UK publication Insurance Post’s prestigious 2020 Insurtech 100 list were included.
• Tautona previously received investment from Reap Capital in 2017 and landed a seed extension funding in September of last year in a round led by Allan Gray and Umkhathi Wethu Ventures.
• In October, Pineapple took won $1.5 million in VentureClash, a $5 million global venture challenge for early-stage companies, run by VentureClash.

SA Intelligent automation company Tautona.AI and insurtech Pineapple have been included on UK’s digital transformation platform Sønr and UK publication Insurance Post’s prestigious 2020 Insurtech 100 list were included.

The two SA startups were recognized as two of the world’s most innovative digital insurance solutions providers. Sønr is monitoring recent industry dynamics and sector reshaping insurtechs.

The top three insurtechs on the list were US insurtech Lemonade, China’s WeSure and ZhongAn Insurance.

Tautona.AI was founded in 2017 by John Holdsworth and Philip Cooper after executing a commitment to automate the claims process at one of the leading insurers in South Africa.

Sønr and Insurance Post recognised Tautona.AI and Pineapple in this year’s Insurtech 100 list.

By leveraging machine learning algorithms to recognize trends in the data, Tautona.AI claims its solution identifies fraudulent claims with a higher degree of accuracy than conventional insurers.

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The startup previously received investment from Reap Capital in 2017 and landed a seed extension funding in September of last year in a round led by Allan Gray and Umkhathi Wethu Ventures (UW Ventures).

Holdsworth has declined to reveal how much had been invested in the startup in each of these rounds.

Last year, Tautona.AI was selected to participate in the third cohort of insurance company Lloyd’s 10-week Lloyds Lab program, which started on September 2.

The startup is currently engaged in the Lloyd ‘s Future at Lloyds, a strategy described by the insurance company as an attempt to create the “world’s most advanced insurance marketplace”.

Holdsworth remarked in a statement earlier this week:

“Most of the 100 are made up of established Insuretech’s, with proven traction in the market. However, this year the index does include a number of earlier stage businesses, their inclusion largely due down to a combination of particularly strong founding teams and a well-executed product strategy aligned to huge growth opportunity,” he said.

Pineapple co-founder Matthew Elan Smith said yesterday that the startup is excited to be included in the top 100 Insurtech list.

Pineapple was founded in 2017 by Smith, Ndabenhle Junior Ngulube and Marnus van Heerden.

In October, the Johannesburg-based insurtech took first place and won $1.5 million in VentureClash, a $5 million global venture challenge for early-stage companies, run by VentureClash.

Smith stated that the startup had recently launched, motor insurance serving early participants, in partnership with Old Mutual Insure.

“We will also be rolling out a few cool, new product features, one of which will reward users for driving less, which is super relevant given the increase in work-from-home norm that South Africa is currently experiencing at this given moment. We anticipate that this behaviour will continue moving forward, well at least till the end of 2020,” he said.

He said that the startup also had some “very exciting news” about its expansion into the U.S. market and a partnership there that the startup would share more details about as soon “as we are able to”.

The startup, he said, saw very strong recovery in demand as the country moved from Level 5 to Level 4 and Level 3.

Smith said: “With regards to claims, what we have seen is a change in the nature of claims. As opposed to claims of people being pickpocketed we have seen an increase in claims where people spill drinks (including wine) on laptops and where people’s things are accidentally damaged by their kids”.