Co-founder and CEO of Pineapple.co.za
Marnus is a co-founder and CEO of Pineapple.co.za, a South African InsurTech that has received global acclaim for its approach to making insurance fair and easy to access.
Pineapple has grown its gross written premium by 7x over the past 18 months and is rated 4,7/5 on average across Hellopeter, the Google Play Store, the Apple App Store and Google Search. Their closest competitor comes at 4,3/5. (See the MyBroadband article here: https://mybroadband.co.za/news/industrynews/407704-who-is-the-top-consumer-reviewed-insurance-provider.html.) It currently has 45 employees.
Pineapple has won the following awards:
- MTN Consumer App of the Year
- Voted Best Insurance Tech in the World (The Digital Insurer)
- Google Launchpad Accelerator (first InsurTech ever accepted)
- Global InsurTech top 100
- VentureClash USA 1st prize, $1,5 million
- Hartford InsurTech Hub, USA
- UK government’s Go Global Partnership (Top 12 start-ups in Africa)
- Stanford University’s African Start-Up Award winner (best start-up in Africa)
- SASA Start-up Founder of the Year
- Seven ‘Bookmarks’ marketing awards
- Loerie Award
Marnus studied BAccLLB, an undergraduate degree allowing a student to obtain both the BAcc (Accounting) and LLB (Law) degrees within five years. Currently there are just over 200 people in South Africa holding the BAccLLB degree. Stellenbosch University is also currently the only university offering the degree. Marnus then went on to complete his Honours in Accounting at the University of Stellenbosch.
During his time at Stellenbosch, he was primarius and head mentor at Eendrag residence in Stellenbosch. When he was primarius, Eendrag won MAD2 (RAG), an initiative where the students are involved in community development. They won the sports trophy and received an A+ for the welcoming programme while smoothly facilitating large-scale policy changes within the larger university environment.
Marnus was also involved in setting up a bursary and prize fund for previously disadvantaged and high-performing students to the tune of R1,5 million over a three-year period. He was involved in driving a culture of critical thinking and engagement at the university by bringing multiple renowned guest speakers to the campus. In addition, he was involved in setting up Eendrag Community Service to be an R100 000 a year project.
With Marnus as head mentor to some 280 students, Eendrag won the university’s academic prize.
He completed his articles at KPMG in the insurance division, where he became the first trainee to be published in KPMG’s annual insurance survey, both in his second and third year of articles.
Marnus is passionate about the future of South Africa − and specifically the role that young people have in shaping the future, as well as their responsibility to get involved where they can.
In his free time, he likes to socialise with friends and family, play golf, and spend time in the bush.
