PERSONAL BIO
François Petousis is the CEO and one of the founders of Lumkani, a South Africa-based social enterprise and Insurtech. François has always been avidly engaged in serving communities impacted by societal challenges. He founded Lumkani after completing his undergraduate engineering degree, with his thesis on developing low cost solutions to the devastation of informal settlement fires. He then went on to complete a Master’s in inclusive business model innovation at the UCT graduate school of business, as a Bertha Scholar. After founding the company, François became the Head of product, then the Director of humanitarian projects, and took on his current role, CEO of the company, in 2021.
LUMKANI BIO
Lumkani exists to create safe & resilient communities for under-served people, reducing risks & inequalities and promoting inclusive economic growth. The first focus area Lumkani has tackled is that of informal settlement fires. Lumkani (recognized by Fast Company as one of the most innovative companies in Africa in 2020) has developed an award-winning early-warning fire detection system specifically designed for urban informal settlements. This mesh networked system creates a community wide alert in the event of fire to give people the critical time to be proactive before a fire becomes dangerous. It has been installed in over 115,000 homes in South Africa, Kenya and Bangladesh, and according to communities, helps to limit the spread of fire in over 95% of fire events.
Lumkani has also developed a world first fire insurance and fire detection bundled product for informal home-owners, underwritten by Hollard. As of 2026, Lumkani has over 25000 customers for its fire detector and fire insurance bundled product, and covers over R1 billion of informal property in South Africa, having paid out R35 million in claims back to informal homeowners to date.
