In Saudi Arabia, most insurance still happens offline.
Masoud Alhelou, who once grew Expedia’s travel-insurance arm from scratch, set out to change that with Yasmina, an API that lets platforms like Jisr and Syarah bundle coverage directly into checkout flows.
The startup just raised $2 million (Scene Holding, Access Bridge, Arzan VC, Sanabil/500 MENA) and will enter the UAE this year, Egypt in 2026. Yasmina claims partners can go live in under 48 hours and, within five years, hopes to become the region’s first fully digital insurer.
I had the chance to sit down with Masoud a couple of weeks back. We unpacked Yasmina’s regulatory moat, their zero-CAC distribution playbook, and why embedded insurance may be MENA’s next big fintech unlock.
Masoud, what drew you to embedded insurance, particularly in Saudi Arabia? Have global players like Lemonade or Cover Genius influenced your thinking?
Absolutely. I previously led the travel insurance product at Expedia. When I started, it was generating zero revenue. By the time I left, it had generated millions in annual revenue.
That journey exposed me to innovative insurance models and companies, such as Lemonade and Cover Genius. If we could build something like this in the Middle East, it would be a game changer. That was the spark.
After Expedia, I joined Maersk in Copenhagen, but the idea never left me. I started looking for the right partner in Saudi Arabia, and that’s when I met Bashar.
Bashar is ex–SAMA and was instrumental in helping set up the insurance sector in Saudi. He later became the CEO of a major insurance company and had also been exploring ways to digitize the entire insurance experience. When we connected, it was clear we were thinking along the same lines. That’s how Yasmina was born.
We chose a human name intentionally. We didn’t want to sound like a generic corporate entity. We wanted something friendly and accessible.
We launched with a simple home insurance product, a localised version of Lemonade. It was the first of its kind in Saudi Arabia. We approached the regulator and said, 'We’re a tech company, but we want to sell insurance.' This initiated a lengthy and detailed approval process with SAMA. It wasn’t easy, but we successfully obtained approval to operate as a non-insurance entity offering insurance without holding a direct insurance license.
That experience opened our eyes to a much bigger opportunity: embedded insurance.
We realised the real impact would come from enabling digital businesses' marketplaces, platforms, e-commerce sites to offer insurance as part of their customer journey. We built Yasmina to make that process incredibly simple: one line of code, and you're live. On the regulatory side, we handle everything. Technically and legally, we remove the friction.
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