Short-term insurer Santam has acquired Kandua, an online marketplace company for home services.

Kandua will merge with Santam’s existing home service offering, Home+, forming a wholly owned, independent subsidiary of the insurer.

The Kandua.com website offers an online marketplace for home services that enables consumers to connect with, compare and hire professionals across hundreds of service types, such as plumbers, electricians, carpenters and more.

Service providers can use the ‘Kandua for Pros’ app to find new customers and manage their core business processes.

“Kandua’s talent, technology and customer base are valuable assets for our business, as it opens up new avenues for client growth and digital innovation. The business has an established technology and extensive network of customers,” says Santam Partnership Solutions CEO Gloria Tapon-Njamo.

This is a Santam group subsidiary focused with building partnerships across industries to develop innovative products, diversify revenue, and expand into untapped market segments.

“Critically, this is a strategic acquisition aimed at accelerating our digital innovation and expansion into new market segments. This acquisition expands the impact that Santam can have on informal artisans and small businesses, through access to training, enabling business growth, job creation, financial inclusion and introducing products tailored for their needs,” she adds.

Kandua for Business, a division of the company that specifically caters to retailers and insurance companies, uses technology that is said to make service integration into the value chain transparent and efficient.

A number of large retailers and financial service providers currently use the service, Santam points out.

Retailers can offer their customers professional installation services together with their purchases of home goods.

Santam avers that the insurance solution enables the same efficiency and transparency for insurance claims fulfilment.

Kandua was founded by entrepreneurs Sayo Folawiyo and Arjun Khoosal in 2014 to help small businesses grow by connecting professional services firms with consumers.

On a monthly average, Kandua connects over 40 000 vetted home service companies to about R50-million worth of work opportunities from individual and business customers, according to Santam.

“Our vision is to make home service fulfilment seamless and equitable for service providers and the customers they serve, driven by trust and simplicity. We do this by using technology to make marketing and business operations easier for service providers: shortening the distance between having a skill and making a living from it. Being part of Santam accelerates this work,” says Folawiyo, who will continue to serve as CEO of Kandua.