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Digital education insurance platform goes live

Samuel Mungadze
By Samuel Mungadze, Africa editor
Johannesburg, 17 Nov 2022

Kagiso Tiso Holdings (KTH) today launched Futurewise, a black-owned insurtech and edtech platform targeting the youth.

KTH is a black-owned and -managed investment holding company with an asset base of R15 billion.

Unveiling its newest venture today in Sandton, KTH says Futurewise has three key pillars. The first is the payment of tuition fees and/or other costs such as uniforms. The second is an education investment fund to assist parents with saving for their children's tertiary education, powered by Nedbank corporate and investment banking. Lastly, a learning hub that provides content and products to support learners.

According to the company, its education insurance offering has been designed as an annuity product that pays schools and higher education institutions directly every year to ensure tuition fees are taken care of until the child reaches the age of 22.

Futurewise says it is fortified by a proprietary technology platform that delivers an omni-channel experience for customers to engage on their preferred devices and medium.

To reinforce its offering, KTH says Futurewise has also secured a number of education and retail partners, such as HP, CodeSource and Skillshare, to form part of the learning ecosystem that is made available exclusively to all its customers.

Paballo Makosholo, KTH group CEO and chairman of Futurewise, comments: “We are excited to bring this innovative educational insurance service to South Africans that have been seeking to secure the future of their children.

“We are driven by impact and we believe education is a key tool that will ensure the future success of South Africa.

“I believe this digital educational insurance solution provides a compelling value proposition that addresses a critical need in the South African market. I have personally secured the future of my kids by signing up for a policy.”

According to Makosholo, Futurewise brings together the best of fintech and edutech to deliver maximum benefit to parents and guardians.

“It is built on the understanding that equipping learners with the means to complete their schooling ensures a healthy workforce that will play an integral role in South Africa’s economic growth, well into the future.”

Arno Jansen van Vuuren, chief operations and technology officer at Futurewise, says: “The learning hub provides learners with access to education courses, tutoring support and partner discounts from our education partners made available exclusively and for free to our policyholders.”

Futurewise is financially backed by Venture Capitalworks (VCW), which is also KTH’s founding partner in the business.

“The Futurewise purpose resonates with us and is fully aligned with our vision as a group making an impact,” says Brent Shahim, VCW CEO.

“As VCW, we have successfully funded and incubated disruptive insurance operators, having launched the first direct life insurer in South Africa.

“The vision for the business resonates, the partnership with KTH is complementary, the commercial opportunity is exciting and we are able to leverage our experience in the insurance space, so this co-investment in Futurewise made perfect sense.”

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