‍ShipBubble: 6x Growth with Shipping Insurance

ShipBubble is a Nigerian shipping aggregation platform that connects e-commerce merchants to 50+ courier partners through a single API. By Q1 2024, Disrupt Africa reported that ShipBubble had doubled its entire 2023 shipment volume in a single quarter.

One product change drove much of that momentum. After integrating Curacel Grow's embedded insurance API, ShipBubble saw a 6x increase in customer acquisition, per Curacel's published case study. Not from a rebrand, a funding round, or a pricing change. From adding a ₦500-from insurance toggle at checkout.

Here's how it worked. (For broader context on this model, see our post on how logistics platforms use embedded insurance.)

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The Problem Before Insurance

Nigeria's e-commerce logistics infrastructure is expensive and unreliable. The World Bank reports that moving goods domestically in Nigeria costs 5.3x more per unit distance than in the United States. Mordor Intelligence estimates that roughly 12% of Nigerian parcels are damaged on pothole-ridden roads, against a 1-5% global e-commerce benchmark.

Before Curacel, ShipBubble passed through whatever insurance its carrier partners offered. Those policies were inconsistent, capped low, and invisible at checkout. Merchants were left asking: if this parcel is lost, who actually pays?

In a market where only 0.34% of GDP goes to insurance premiums and just 2% of Nigerian adults carry any form of insurance (per Intelpoint's analysis of NAICOM data), the default for every shipped parcel was: uninsured, unprotected, unreimbursed.

What ShipBubble Did

ShipBubble integrated Curacel Grow's shipping insurance API into its label-creation flow. The integration was, in CEO Jordan Ajibola's words, “one of the fastest” ShipBubble has done.

When a merchant prices a shipment, ShipBubble calls Curacel's insurance endpoint. The API returns a live AXA Mansard quote based on declared parcel value. The merchant ticks a box, the premium is collected with the shipping fee, and the Goods-in-Transit policy is issued in real time.

Pricing starts at 0.20% of declared value plus ₦1,650 for parcels up to ₦500,000, per ShipBubble's API docs. A ₦100,000 parcel costs about ₦1,850 to insure. No separate application. No broker.

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The Results

After integrating embedded insurance, ShipBubble saw a 6x increase in customer acquisition. Curacel's case study attributes this growth specifically to the insurance integration.

The insight is counterintuitive. Shipping insurance is usually positioned as a loss-recovery tool. For ShipBubble, it was a trust tool. Nigerian merchants operate in a low-trust logistics environment: 12% parcel damage, opaque carrier liability, no clear recourse. A named, AXA Mansard-backed policy at checkout collapsed that uncertainty into a single click.

By September 2025, ShipBubble had become Bumpa's default logistics layer for 60,000+ Nigerian merchants, per TechCabal. Insurance was the differentiator that helped ShipBubble win that integration over competitors shipping without protection.

👉 Get Started with Curacel Grow and add shipping insurance to your logistics platform.

Why This Matters for Other Logistics Platforms

ShipBubble isn't the only Curacel Grow logistics partner. Topship also integrated for marine and cargo insurance. But ShipBubble's results show the broader pattern: in markets where logistics trust is low, insurance at checkout converts merchants who wouldn't have signed up without it.

Nigeria's other shipping aggregators (Sendbox, Terminal Africa, Kwik) offer limited carrier-supplied cover, but none expose a named A-list underwriter in their API. ShipBubble is the only one with AXA Mansard visible in its documentation. Cover Genius research shows 66% of consumers would spend more at checkout if insurance were offered.

How Curacel Grow Works for Shipping

Curacel Grow is the embedded insurance API that powers ShipBubble's shipping protection. It handles underwriter connection, real-time quoting, policy issuance, and claims processing. Your platform earns commission on every policy sold.

• Sign up and get instant sandbox access. Configure Goods-in-Transit templates.
• Integrate. A single API call at label creation returns a live quote based on declared value. The insurance toggle appears in your shipping flow.
• Go live. Production credentials arrive within 24 hours. Claims are submitted digitally and processed through Curacel's AI engine.

The Takeaway

ShipBubble added a ₦500-from insurance option at checkout, powered by AXA Mansard through a single API integration. Customer acquisition grew 6x. The lesson: merchants want to trust the platform they ship through, and a transparent, embedded policy is the fastest way to build that trust.

The first 20 businesses to go live on Curacel Grow get priority onboarding, direct Slack access to the product team, and input on the roadmap.

Check out real-world outcomes from platforms already embedding insurance, including the full ShipBubble case study.

Ready to be the next ShipBubble? Get Started with Curacel Grow. No credit card required.