Car insurer
Naked Insurance
AI-driven cover backed by Hollard, reviewed in full, the fixed-fee model, funding, and what we still don’t know.
2016
Established
Underwriters
Hollard
2025
$38m Series B2
 
90 seconds
Quote time
The verdict on Naked Insurance
Naked is a fully digital, app-based South African insurer, founded in 2016 by three former short-term insurance actuaries who wanted to remove the conflict of interest at the heart of traditional insurance: insurers profit when they pay out less. Naked instead takes a fixed fee from your premium and donates any unused surplus to a cause you choose, rather than keeping it as extra profit. Its policies are underwritten by Hollard Specialist Insurance Limited, giving a young insurtech the backing of South Africa’s largest privately-owned insurer, and in January 2025 Naked raised $38 million in a funding round that was, at the time, the largest insurtech investment in Africa’s history. As with other young, digital-first insurers, Naked’s biggest question mark isn’t its funding or backing, both of which are strong, but the fact that it doesn’t yet have the long, independently published claims track record that decades-old incumbents have built up.
What you will learn
- Who founded Naked, and the actuarial background behind the business
- Who actually underwrites Naked’s policies
- What the “Naked Difference” model actually means for your premium
- How Naked became the recipient of Africa’s largest insurtech funding round
- What is and isn’t known about Naked’s claims and complaints record
- Who Naked suits, and who might want to compare further
Who Is Naked?
Naked was founded in 2016 by Alex Thomson, Sumarié Greybe, and Ernest North, three actuaries who had spent years consulting to South Africa’s traditional insurance industry before deciding to build something different. Greybe had run her own short-term insurance consultancy, Quindiem Consulting, for over 15 years before it was acquired by Ernst & Young in 2011, after which she became an EY partner; Thomson also held a senior EY role as head of the firm’s Africa actuarial services practice. Naked raised its first seed funding, around R20 million, from Hollard and investment firm Yellowwoods in November 2016, and spent nearly two years building its technology and securing regulatory approval before launching its car insurance product to the public in April 2018. Home contents, buildings, and single-item cover followed in January 2020.
Who Actually Underwrites Naked?
Naked Financial Technology Pty Ltd is an authorised Financial Services Provider, FSP number 48822, but it is not itself a licensed insurer. The actual insurance risk on every Naked policy is carried by Hollard Specialist Insurance Limited, a licensed non-life insurer and Financial Services Provider, FSP number 25511, and part of the Hollard Group, South Africa’s largest privately-owned insurer. In practical terms, Naked owns the app, the brand, and the customer experience, while Hollard’s insurance balance sheet, itself carrying a GCR national scale financial strength rating of AA(ZA), stands behind every claim.
The “Naked Difference”: How the Fixed-Fee Model Works
Surplus goes to charity, not shareholders
Naked’s founders built the business around what they call the Naked Difference: rather than keeping unclaimed premiums as profit the way a traditional insurer does, Naked takes a fixed percentage fee from your premium upfront, and any surplus left over in the pool of unused premiums is donated to a cause chosen by Naked’s customers, rather than retained by the company. The stated goal is to remove the structural conflict of interest that undermines trust in traditional insurance, where an insurer’s profit is directly tied to how little it pays out in claims.
Naked’s platform uses AI-driven underwriting and pricing to generate quotes and offers cover for cars, home, contents, and single portable items, all managed through its app rather than a call centre, with the company advertising a final quote in under 90 seconds and the ability to buy, adjust, or pause cover entirely online.
Funding: Africa’s Largest Insurtech Raise
November 2016: Seed funding, ~R20m, from Hollard and Yellowwoods
August 2021: Series A, $11m, led by Naspers Foundry
February 2023: Series B, $17m, led by the IFC
January 2025: Series B2, $38m, led by BlueOrchard, with Hollard, Yellowwoods, IFC, and DEG
Naked’s January 2025 round was reported as the largest single insurtech funding round in Africa’s history at the time, bringing total capital raised since founding to roughly $65 million. The company has said the funding will go toward further AI and automation investment, product and market expansion, and meeting the regulatory capital requirements that come with a rapidly growing insurance book.
2016
Established
Underwriters
Hollard
2025
$38m Series B2
 
90 seconds
Quote time
Claims Reliability: Strong Backing, Limited Long-Run Data
Naked’s financial backing is genuinely strong on two independent measures: the balance sheet behind every policy belongs to Hollard, an AA(ZA)-rated insurer with over four decades of history, and Naked’s own cap table includes globally recognised development finance institutions like the IFC and DEG alongside a leading impact investor in BlueOrchard. What Naked does not yet have is a long, independently published Ombudsman for Short-Term Insurance or National Financial Ombud Scheme track record of the kind built up over decades by insurers like Santam, OUTsurance, or Old Mutual Insure. As a company that only launched its car insurance product in 2018, Naked’s claims reliability is currently best assessed on the strength of its backing and the design intent behind its fixed-fee model, rather than on a long run of independently audited complaint-ratio data.
Is Naked Right for You?
Naked suits buyers who want a fully digital, app-based insurance experience, are comfortable with AI-driven underwriting and pricing, and like the idea of an insurer whose profit model doesn’t depend on paying out fewer claims. Its backing by Hollard gives real financial substance to a young brand, addressing the most common worry people have about newer insurtechs. Buyers who specifically want the reassurance of a long, independently published ombud track record may prefer a more established insurer, while taking some comfort in the fact that Naked’s underlying risk sits with one of South Africa’s largest and longest-established insurance groups.
Is Naked a good car insurance company in South Africa?
Who owns Naked, and who underwrites its policies?
What is the "Naked Difference"?
How much has Naked raised in funding?
How fast is a Naked quote or claim?
Does Naked have a long claims or complaints track record?
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