# Richard Hardy

> Richard Hardy is a Series B investor at BlueOrchard Finance S A backing Insurance and Analytics. See 4 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [BlueOrchard Finance S A](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/blueorchard-finance-s-a)
- Location: Zürich, Switzerland
- Total investments: 4
- Last investment: Oct 2025
- Lead investor: 50%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-hardy-b83490b/?originalSubdomain=ch

Richard Hardy is a Investment Director - Africa Private Equity at BlueOrchard Finance Ltd. He attended Graduate School of Business - University of Cape Town.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Insurance | 2 | 50% |
| Analytics | 1 | 25% |
| Agriculture | 1 | 25% |
| Auto Insurance | 1 | 25% |
| Life Insurance | 1 | 25% |

11 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series B | 2 | 50% |
| Series A | 1 | 25% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 1 | 25% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Ghana | 1 | 25% |
| Switzerland | 1 | 25% |
| South Africa | 1 | 25% |
| United Kingdom | 1 | 25% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Previsico | Previsico is a spinOut company from Loughborough University specialising in modelling flooding in real-time, using weather predictions to make street-level flood nowcasts and forecasts. The company's mission is to be the leading global provider of cutting-edge flood prediction that saves lives and livelihoods.Its FloodMap Live producesround the clock street-level flood risk predictions and analytics. Uniquely, these are continuously modelled and updated using a combination of different weather forecasts. This allows the company to map the likelihood of short and long-term surface water events in real-time to the street level. |  | Series A | Oct 21, 2025 |  |
| Naked Insurance | Naked Insurance is the new generation: effortless, transparent and sincere. Naked Insurance offers short-term retail insurance products. | $37.8M | Series B | Jan 21, 2025 |  |
| Pula Advisors | Pula is an insurance intermediary that implements data driven agricultural insurance. Pula assists hundreds of thousands of small-scale farmers across 6 countries in Africa. Farmers are able to safeguard their crops and invest in their farms through financial tools that take advantage of the rising use of mobile technology. | $20M | Series B | Apr 15, 2024 |  |
| Vanguard Assurance | Vanguard Assurance provides services for personal insurance, including auto, travel, house, and accident insurance. They offer a variety of core services, including bonding, engineering, marine, aviation, general accident, and more. |  | Venture - Series Unknown | Mar 15, 2022 |  |

4 of 4 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [International Finance Corporation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/international-finance-corporation) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bill-melinda-gates-foundation) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Burnt Island Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/burnt-island-ventures) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Connecticut Innovations](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/connecticut-innovations) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [DEG](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/deg) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Foresight Group](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/foresight-group) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About BlueOrchard Finance S A

VC Fund · Geneva, Switzerland

BlueOrchard Finance, S.A. is a leading asset manager in Impact Investing, with specific expertise in debt financing for microfinance institutions worldwide. Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, BlueOrchard has local offices in Cambodia, Georgia, Peru and Kenya, with a presence as well in Luxembourg and Zurich. Since its inception in 2001,BlueOrchard has made in excess of USD 2 billion in loans to microfinance institutions globally, and is committed to advancing socially responsible financial inclusion worldwide and offering attractive investment products to investors in this dynamic and rewarding field. BlueOrchard Finance, S.A.'s mission is to be a leading commercial microfinance intermediary, providing innovative financing solutions to institutions in emerging markets, and financial and social returns to investors and their vision is to contribute to building a strong, healthy and sustainable inclusive financial system worldwide that empowers the working poor, and helps them to improve their standard of living and that of their families.

4 contacts available at BlueOrchard Finance S A.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Richard Hardy | Investment Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/richard-hardy-hardy |
| Ernesto Costa | Senior Investment Director | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/ernesto-costa-ed80 |
| Ernst Brugger | Co-Founder & Chairman | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/prof-dr-ernst-brugger |
| Pranav Murari | Senior Investment Officer | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/pranav-murari |

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### Similar stage
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## FAQ

### What does Richard Hardy invest in?

Richard Hardy invests primarily in Insurance, Analytics and Agriculture startups, most often at Series B and Series A stage. Most of the 4 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Ghana. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Richard Hardy last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Richard Hardy closed in Oct 2025. Shizune tracks 4 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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