CRG Seminar: the story of CarePay - innovating from Kenya to the world: how solving real problems for underserved communities in Africa can result in innovations for the rich world too

Few people in Europe know about the inspiring “reverse innovation” that is happening around the world. These are product or technology innovations originally designed to provide services to bottom-of-the-income-pyramid consumers, which are then brought to richer consumers too. Traditionally, innovations would follow the opposite route: first a new product or service is targeted at consumers in the rich world, and only afterwards the innovation is brought (often in a lower quality version…) to lower income consumers and regions of the world.

 

Nowadays there are more and more “reverse innovations” starting in Africa which are going global. The lecture will explain more about this phenomenon, and will deep dive into one concrete example called “CarePay”. CarePay, started in Kenya in 2015, is a technology platform making health insurance & health savings more intuitive, affordable and accessible for people from all walks of life. Through its East African brand, M-TIBA, and its recent expansion into the Middle East, CarePay’s technology serves millions of people around the globe. The lecture aims to outline some of the key factors behind CarePay’s ability to start in Africa and then go global, to serve as inspiration for other reverse innovators out there who are striving to make an impact.
 

This seminar is organised by the CRG Governance, entrepreneurship and inclusive development.