Kenya insurtech Lami Technologies in February last year announced the acquisition of Bluewave, another startup in the insurance space, to expand its product offerings and allow it to expand into new markets in Africa, but it has now emerged that the deal fell through months later.
TechCrunch has exclusively learned that at the time Lami went public with the acquisition, there was only a two-year “strategic partnership agreement” in place. However, Blue wave The founder, Adelaide Odhiambo, told TechCrunch that the groundwork for an acquisition was set once Lami’s fundraising campaign, which had begun in earnest around the same time, closed. Lami went on to raise a $3.7 million seed round led by Harlem Capital.
Odhiambo, who joined Lami as head of partnerships, claims the terms of the deal, including acquisition costs, began to change, forcing her to leave in August last year. Meanwhile, Bluewave had licensed its technology to Lami and onboarded partners and employees under the deal.
Lammy declined to comment.
Odhiambo told TechCrunch that Bluewave “went into the negotiations with full intent” to complete the deal with Lami. “Unfortunately, the discussions did not bear fruit as we were unable to agree on the commercial terms of a takeover. However, we still maintained the strategic partnership agreement, which is now coming to an end, Odhiambo said.
Lami has an end-to-end digital insurance platform and an API that enables businesses from different sectors to create customized insurance solutions for their customers. Founded in 2018 by Jihan Abass (CEO). Roy Perlot (CFO) who has been working in insurtech since 2020, was appointed co-founder last year.
Launched in 2016, Bluewave has built an online platform that allows customers to access microinsurance products through different channels including USSD, SMS, WhatsApp chatbots and web apps.
At the time of the acquisition announcement last year, Abass said Lami would be integrated into Bluewave’s platform to enhance its B2B2C offerings. Lami was also to leverage Bluewave’s reach to expand into new markets such as Malawi and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Odhiambo claims the two-year deal with Lami expires in January 2024. Asked why she let the deal lapse, Odhiambo said she had started the partnerships and did not want to stop.
“I didn’t want anything that could jeopardize that relationship with them,” he said, adding that Bluewave is relaunching to pick up where the company left off and has signed partnerships with aggregators, including mobile network operators and banks to the distribution of microinsurance products in several countries in Eastern and Southern Africa.
