OKO provides effective, affordable crop insurance to farmers in emerging markets. Using new technologies in satellite imagery and weather forecasting simplifies the claim management process, making crop insurance accessible to thousands of smallholder farms who are otherwise left exposed if their crops fail. By leveraging the increasing influence of mobile technology, OKO provides a safety net of income security, and aims to help overcome income inequalities for farmers around the world.
Challenge: Connecting with customers
For remote smallholders who are often farming less than 5 acres, traditional insurance is not a viable option. There are an estimated 500 million farms of this nature globally.
OKO’s model – backed by global giant Allianz - uses historical data that automates the claim process, making crop insurance much more affordable. But connecting with, and selling insurance to, this demographic was proving difficult – located in remote locations, often illiterate, and with low incomes and no bank account. They also don’t necessarily understand how insurance works, so they needed to be educated to understand the benefits. To address this, OKO began a pilot project in landlocked Mali in West Africa.
Solution: Voice and video messages
Initially, OKO was using SMS to communicate directly with the farmers via the local network provider, Orange. But they were limited to the text-only content that could be exchanged. There were also cost implications for the farmer – every time they sent an SMS, they would get charged.
“We created our own system to broadcast SMS, but soon realised that wasn’t the right channel. Not only was it expensive for farmers to exchange texts, but many were unable to read or write. So we had to look at other options,” recalls Simon Schwall, CEO and Co-founder of OKO.
Then they discovered that around 30% of the smallholder farmer population in Mali was already using WhatsApp to send voice recordings and videos, rather than just text-based messages. “Giving farmers the option of communicating by voice and video was the game changer. They can really express themselves and their needs at low cost,” explains Simon.
