Entrepreneurial VP International Insurance Brokerage

About Pula

We are an insuretech firm that provides agriculture insurance design and execution services, specialising in index based insurance and are backed by top tier VC investors who have invested more than $25 million in the business. Since 2015 we have provided climate insurance to 15.4 million smallholder farmers, 41% of which were women across 19 markets in Africa and Asia who pay an average of $6.8 per season to insure their crops. So far we've unlocked over $2.22 billion of capital from local and international insurance markets for climate risks since we started in 2015 and paid out $40.8 million to our client farmers.

Pula is a fast-paced space, constantly adapting to new opportunities and challenges and we are made up of a high-performance, multi-cultural team. We expect our team to value performance, results and professionalism.

At Pula, our values are: 

• Obsessed with results: We are responsible for our future and therefore we get things done!
• Connect the Dots: We continuously identify different customer needs & business problems and build solutions that deliver value.
• Have a Can do Attitude! We dare to do things differently to make things work.
• We have each others’ back: We look out for each other & we share high quality, timely feedback that makes us better. 

According to the UN’s InterGovernmental Panel for Climate Change more than 3.3 billion people globally live in hotspots with high vulnerability to climate change and are now already feeling the impact of climate change through increased temperatures and increasingly erratic rainfall. 
Insurance is a tool for vulnerable households in these affected regions to adapt to the effects that climate change is already having today on these households. It is a tool that enables for compensation payment for losses and damages that these households had no part in causing. Insurance compensation enables these households to make adjustments to their day to day livelihoods and practices and therefore allows for an equitable and just transition.

At Pula, we are building the systems that enable farmers worldwide to access insurance, using technology to insure this previously uninsured worldwide. We work in over 17 countries across Africa and Asia, and by 2021, have facilitated crop insurance cover to over 6 million farmers, 30% of which are women, across Kenya, India, Nepal, Pakistan, Rwanda, Uganda, Nigeria, Mali, Senegal, Zambia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Tanzania, Mozambique and Malawi. We are a for profit, and have raised over $10 million from leading venture and institutional investors as well as developed philanthropic relationships with private foundations and bilateral donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and German Insure Resilience Solutions Fund that have accelerated investments in our target markets.

Pula is proudly fast paced, constantly learning from the challenges we face and overcome. We are proudly culturally diverse but united in our ambition of continuous high-performance. By challenging ourselves we believe that we can overcome the hard problems we love solving. 

At Pula, our culture is defined by our: 

1.Obsessed with results: We are responsible for our future and therefore we get things done!

2. Ability to connect the Dots: We continuously identify different customer needs & business problems and build solutions that deliver value.

3. Our Can do Attitude! We dare to do things differently to make things work.

4. Ability to have each others’ back: We look out for each other & we share high quality, timely feedback that makes us better.

What you will be doing

Pula is expanding into brokerage services, beyond agricultural insurance, and is seeking an entrepreneurial leader with deep expertise in the insurance brokerage industry to build and lead its international brokerage business (from leading sales to guiding operations). This is a high-impact role requiring a strategic thinker with robust B2G / B2B client acquisition experience, industry knowledge, and an established network across multiple African markets. The role will be instrumental in shaping and driving our insurance business across multiple lines.

1. Be an entrepreneur to start broad insurance brokerage services for Pula

• Analyze industry trends, competitor strategies, and regulatory landscapes to identify high-opportunity markets (clients, geographies and classes)
• Use your extensive network and judgment to assess market viability, and to develop and execute market entry plans
• Design and implement growth plans tailored to diverse African markets, with a focus on East, Southern, and West Africa

2. Hire, train and mentor a team of B2G brokerage sales professionals

• Identify the right profile of people for a B2G / B2B brokerage sales team and work with Pula’s recruiting team to find, select and hire a high performing team.
• Coach and mentor a team of international sales professionals to be a high performing team, including thinking about the systems and processes required to effectively manage them.

3. Build a profitable insurance brokerage by 2027

• Lead efforts in acquiring new clients across governments and large corporates and establish strong, sustainable relationships with decision-makers.
• Own and maintain client relationships, with a focus on long-term partnerships and deal continuity.
• Drive the entire process from opportunity identification, negotiation, and client onboarding, through to payment collection.

4. Work with other departments at Pula to operationalize brokerage services

• Work with our legal team on adequate regulatory compliance
• Work with insurance operations to build and manage relationships with insurers and reinsurers, and manage claims and underwriting

 

Who you are

• You have extensive experience building and running a successful international insurance brokerage service
• You have a proven track record in recruiting top sales talent and establishing high-performance brokerage teams
• You have strong client acquisition skills with a history of building relationships in predominantly B2G business environments
• You have demonstrated your ability to identify and enter high-potential African markets through a solid industry network
• You have an entrepreneurial mindset, with a proven ability to drive growth and execute complex deals

The ideal candidate is a strategic, well-connected professional who can independently assess and enter new markets while building relationships that drive significant revenue growth. With a foundation in insurance and a network across Africa, you will understand the nuances of each market and have the foresight to lead initiatives that drive long-term growth.

 

What Pula will bring to the table

• Growth potential: At Pula, we are building the systems that enable farmers worldwide to access insurance, using technology to insure this previously uninsured worldwide. We work in over 19 countries across Africa and Asia, and by 2023, have facilitated crop insurance cover to over 5 million farmers, 40% of which are women. We are a for profit, and have raised over $25 million from leading venture and institutional investors as well as developed philanthropic relationships with private foundations and bilateral donors such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and German Insure Resilience Solutions Fund that have accelerated investments in our target markets.
• Market Leader: Not only is the opportunity massive, but Pula is by far the market leader in it’s category with 11m farmers insured as of 2023.
• Solid: Pula has been funded by leading venture capital investors (Omidyar Network, ACCION, MercyCorps) and global philanthropic institutions (MasterCard Foundation, CGAP/World Bank as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation). Pula closed an oversubscribed $20m series B funding despite the economic downturn.
  
   
• Respected: Winner of the Singapore FinTech Festival 2019, Winner of The InsureTech of the Award, Africa. Featured on TED talks, The New York Times, The Economist.
• Impact and creation: This is a high-impact role, that offers a unique opportunity to bring the company to the next level, whilst developing new strategies, approaches and ideas.
• Leadership: The founders & CEO foster a culture of transparency, respect, high performance, pragmatism, execution and personal development.
• Purpose: It is rare to find a professional opportunity that offers accelerated professional development and a life purpose. Pula is going through a second phase of accelerated growth that will naturally provide professional development, whilst contributing to the financial stability of small farmers in the emerging markets.
• Remuneration: Competitive base salary accordingly with seniority and experience, commission on closed sales and an employee share option plan that offers an attractive equity upside.

To learn more about Pula you can visit

TED Talk: Crop Insurance, an Idea Worth Seeding
New York Times: He Grew up on a Farm. Now, He Helps Protect Them
The Economist: The Poor, Who Most Need Insurance, Are Least Likely to Have It

How to apply

Fill out the form below, and upload a resume in English.

Pula’s mission is to provide farmer resilience. To achieve this, we put our small holder farmers that use our services and the employees that provide them at the heart of everything we do. For that purpose, Pula was created to be an equal opportunity employer that celebrates diversity and is committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.