Nigerian health startup, MDaaS Global has closed a seed extension round of $2.3 million to scale across Nigeria.
The round was led by Newtown Partners, who invested via its Imperial Venture Fund, CRI Foundation. Return investors include FINCA Ventures, Techstars, and Future Africa.
Launched in 2016 by Oluwasoga Oni, Opeyemi Ologun, Genevieve Barnard Oni, and Joseph McCord, MDaaS an abbreviation for medical devices-as-a-service is building Africa’s largest network of physical and virtual diagnostic and primary care facilities to provide convenient, high-quality, and affordable healthcare for the continent’s next billion.
In 2019, the health startup raised $1 million in a seed round. With this new fund, the company has raised a total of $3.7 million, according to TechCrunch.
Since its launch, the healthcare startup has provided diagnostic services to over 40,000 patients in underserved communities. It has also performed over 80,000 diagnostics tests across cardiology, radiology, neurology, laboratory, and general health checks. Over 750 clinicians use its referral network, and it has locked partnerships with more than 500 health facilities and 10 HMO networks.
What the new funding will be used for
This new funding round will be used to launch its new health product, SentinelX and also scale its physical footprint across Nigeria by adding six more diagnostic centres this year. SentinelX which is currently in private beta and will go live in September 2021, acts as a personalized care program where patients pay a one-time fee of N35k (~$70) and access a doctor all year round. Through SentinelX, MDaaS is trying to get as many people as possible to cheaply pre-screen themselves for one year then pay for full value the next year after seeing the benefits of regular checkups.
According to Oni, the health tech startup wants to become one of Nigeria’s three largest diagnostic centers. Oni also noted that MDaaS would consider a pan-African expansion to similar countries like Nigeria. But by 2025, the company aims to operate 100 centers across the continent and serve a million patients per year.
What they are saying
Llew Claasen, the managing partner at Newtown Partners, said, “Most consumers in sub-Saharan Africa receive suboptimal medical care because of infrastructure gaps, low physician density, delays in diagnostics, and a lack of health data visibility. We think the physical diagnostic infrastructure that MDaaS is building out, coupled with the means to collect data and deliver value-added software services, has the potential to completely change the way that physicians, clinicians, and pharmacists do their jobs and lead to better health outcomes for a huge number of previously underserved consumers.”
Oluwasoga Oni, MDaaS Global’s CEO and Co-Founder said, “Unrestricted access to quality healthcare has always been our principal objective and the pandemic has compelled us to consider innovative ways of offering more proactive care. This additional funding will propel our growth as we look to serve more people and in more ways. SentinelX combines a human touch – which is still needed, with advanced technology to provide faster, easier healthcare solutions for Nigerians. But importantly, it makes preventive care more accessible and affordable. This will pave the way for lowering overall medical costs for patients as well as improving their health outcomes in the long run”.
