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Hi everybody, I'm Rowena and you're listening to the Africa Health Ventures podcast where we explore the founders and companies reshaping healthcare across Africa. Today's guest is Bente Krogman, founder of Emtech, one of Africa's leading insurtech companies. Founded in Kenya, Emtech works with more than 40 insurance underwriters and has digitized over 100 insurance products, helping bring health, motor, device and travel insurance into a fully digital economy across East Africa. We hunted down Bente recently in Nairobi because emtech is tackling one of the biggest questions in health care for Africa, which is this, who's actually going to pay for health care at scale across much of the continent, health insurance penetration remains low and millions of families still pay out of pocket when medical emergencies happen. Insurance matters because it doesn't just finance care, it also creates the incentives that align prevention, continuity of care and healthier populations overall. The challenge is that traditional insurance models were never really designed for African consumers. Insurance today is often too expensive, paper based, difficult to access, difficult to pay for, and disconnected from how many people actually live and work, especially in the informal economies. Mtech's bet was that insurance had to become simpler, digital and embedded into everyday life. So instead of meeting up with an insurance broker, you might access coverage while buying a phone, financing a motorbike or visiting your local pharmacy through businesses you already know and trust. And that vision has turned emtech into one of the continent's most important insurtech players. Last year, the company reached a major milestone. Emtech was acquired by Boltech, a Singapore based global insurtech unicorn company operating across nearly 40 markets worldwide. Why does this matter? Because an exit is the moment in the life of a startup when a scrappy mission driven team joins forces with much larger institutional engines, companies with the resources and the reach to grow to a global scale. And with the Runway to pursue this mission for decades into the future. For the founder, it's a moment when they can finally cash out some of their shares, realizing a payback for years spent sweating it out in the trenches. For investors, it's the moment where we get our capital back with profit. An exit is proof that building a healthcare venture in Africa is not just an a noble idea, it's a viable business relevant to global markets. To recap today we're sitting down with Bente Krogman to talk about building emtech from the ground up. How she digitized a fragmented insurance industry, the ins and outs of a founder navigating a major international acquisition, and why embedded insurance could fundamentally reshape healthcare access across Africa. Before we dive in today, a quick public service announcement. If you're interested in healthcare ventures in Africa, you can subscribe to our newsletter@africahealthventures.com newsletter. If you want to refer a promising seed stage startup bringing better healthcare to Africa, get in touch with us through our website@africahealthventures.com One last friendly reminder, the content here is for informational purposes only and should not be taken as legal, business, tax or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment or security. And now, on with the show. We begin by diving into the backstory of who is Bente Krogman and how did she come to Kenya?
