Car insurer
Pineapple car Insurance
App-only cover backed by Old Mutual, reviewed in full, quotes, claims, rewards and what we still don’t know.
2017
Established
Underwriters
Old Mutual
Quote time
90 seconds
4.7/5 rating
Self reported
The verdict on Pineapple Insurance
Pineapple is a fully app-based South African insurtech, founded in 2017 out of a Hannover Re innovation competition, offering car, home contents, and single-item insurance with no call centre, no paperwork, and a quote in under 90 seconds. It is not itself a licensed insurer; Pineapple operates as a Digital Financial Services Provider, with the actual underwriting carried out by Old Mutual Alternative Risk Transfer Insure Limited, part of the Old Mutual Group. That backing gives a young, digital-first company real financial muscle behind it. Pineapple self-reports strong customer ratings, around 4.7 out of 5 combined across HelloPeter and the app stores, but as a company that only recently turned into a mainstream car insurer, it doesn’t yet have the long, independently published OSTI or NFO track record that older, broker-era insurers have built up over decades.
What you will learn
- Who founded Pineapple, and the unusual story of how it started
- Who actually underwrites Pineapple’s policies, since Pineapple isn’t a licensed insurer itself
- What Pineapple covers, and how its app-only, peer-to-peer model works
- What “Drive Less, Get Blessed” actually pays out, and how it works
- How Pineapple’s self-reported customer ratings compare to what independent claims data is available
- Who Pineapple suits, and who might want to compare further
Who Is Pineapple?
Pineapple was founded in 2017 by Matthew Elan Smith, Ndabenhle Junior Ngulube, and Marnus van Heerden, who met while competing in an innovation competition run by global reinsurer Hannover Re in 2016. They didn’t win. But the process of developing their pitch over a six-month design process convinced the trio there was a genuine opportunity to rebuild insurance from scratch around an app, rather than a call centre and paperwork. A fourth co-founder, Sizwe Ndlovu, joined shortly after, reportedly following a chance meeting with the founding team on Johannesburg’s Gautrain, and now serves as the company’s chief technology officer.
Pineapple raised early backing from Lireas Holdings, the strategic investment arm of Hannover Re Group Africa. Later funding rounds included a Series A in 2021 and a $21.3 million Series B in November 2023, one of the larger insurtech funding rounds in the region, with backers reported to include Old Mutual’s Enterprise & Supplier Development Fund, Vunani Capital, and E4E Africa alongside Lireas. Pineapple has since expanded beyond South Africa, with a partnership with US insurer Travelers to provide a white-label version of its platform, and was named an Endeavor Outlier in 2026, a designation reserved for the top 10% of high-performing companies in Endeavor’s global network.
Who Actually Underwrites Pineapple?
This is worth being precise about, because it’s easy to assume an app-based insurer is its own insurance company. It isn’t. Pineapple operates as an authorised Digital Financial Services Provider, FSP number 48650, but the actual insurance risk is carried by Old Mutual Alternative Risk Transfer Insure Limited (OMART), a licensed non-life insurer that is part of the wider Old Mutual Group. In its earlier years, Pineapple’s cover was underwritten through a different partner, the insurer Compass; its current and long-standing underwriting relationship is with OMART. In practical terms, Pineapple owns the app, the brand, and the customer experience, while Old Mutual’s insurance business carries the financial risk and pays the claims.
Products and the Peer-to-Peer Model
Pineapple offers car insurance, home contents cover, and single-item or “portable possessions” insurance for things like phones, laptops, cameras, and jewellery, insured individually by photographing the item in the app, with AI helping identify what it is and suggest a premium.
90-second quote, 30-second claim
Everything happens through the app: getting a quote takes under 90 seconds, submitting a claim takes around 30 seconds, and there is no paperwork and, by design, no call centre, though live chat support is available. Car insurance includes free 24-hour roadside assistance for a flat battery or empty tank, an Open Driver benefit for an undeclared second driver, a multi-car discount, and a Crash Detect feature that can automatically alert emergency services after a collision.
Pineapple markets itself around a peer-to-peer, community-pot structure: a portion of your premium covers Pineapple’s fixed fee, and the remainder goes into a shared pool used to pay valid claims, with unused funds from the pool returned to members in cash at the end of the year.
Drive Less, Get Blessed: The Usage-Based Motor Reward
Pineapple’s car insurance includes a usage-based benefit called Drive Less, Get Blessed, which refunds up to 30% of your monthly premium in cash for any month you drive under 300 kilometres. It’s aimed at low-mileage drivers, people who work from home, use a second car sparingly, or don’t commute daily, and the discount is calculated and paid out automatically each month based on tracked mileage, without needing to file a claim or request it manually.
Up to 30%
Monthly cash-back
Under 300km
Monthly mileage cap
Automatic
No claim required
Monthly
Paid out cycle
Claims Reliability: Strong Self-Reported Scores, Limited Long-Run Data
Pineapple’s own marketing highlights a combined rating of roughly 4.7 out of 5 across HelloPeter and the Apple and Google app stores, along with a self-reported Trust Index of 10 out of 10 on HelloPeter. These figures are real and drawn from genuine customer reviews, but they are self-reported and self-selected in how they’re presented, and individual negative reviews do exist, including complaints on the Apple App Store about the lack of a call centre and slow resolution of billing disputes when the in-app support channel didn’t move fast enough for a frustrated customer.
As a company that only became a mainstream car insurer relatively recently, Pineapple does not yet have the kind of decade-plus, insurer-specific Ombudsman for Short-Term Insurance or National Financial Ombud Scheme track record that older, broker-era insurers like Santam or OUTsurance have built up. This isn’t necessarily a mark against Pineapple, but it does mean the strongest evidence available is the company’s own review scores rather than independently published ombud data.
Is Pineapple Right for You?
Pineapple suits younger, tech-comfortable buyers who want to manage insurance entirely through an app, without ever needing to phone a call centre, and who are drawn to a transparent, community-pool pricing model over a traditional insurer. Low-mileage drivers stand to gain a genuine, automatic monthly saving through Drive Less, Get Blessed. Buyers who specifically want the reassurance of a long, independently published ombud track record may prefer a more established insurer, while still being able to take comfort in the fact that Pineapple’s underlying risk is carried by Old Mutual, one of Africa’s largest and longest-established financial services groups.
Is Pineapple a good car insurance company in South Africa?
Who owns Pineapple, and is it a licensed insurer?
How does Pineapple's peer-to-peer model work?
What is Drive Less, Get Blessed?
How fast is a Pineapple quote or claim?
Does Pineapple have a long claims or complaints track record?
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