Nigerian healthtech startup, MDaaS Global has secured a new $1 million seed round of funding as it prepares to replicate its innovation across different markets in Africa. Nigerian based venture capital firm, Consonance Investment Managers led the funding round. Other investors who participated in the round include: FINCA Ventures, a firm dedicated to impacting investing and Techstars, the global tech hub. A few other undisclosed investors also participated in the round.
Conversely, the funding round was first announced in April of this year. Using scanty details published in an SEC filing, MDaaS reports revealed the company had raised new round of funding from 12 undisclosed investors.
MDaaS says the new funding will come in handy as it gets set for some serious expansion soon. The company has disclosed plans to open over 100 diagnostic services and it’s also looking to expand into some West African countries.
Founded in 2015, MDaaS is one startup trying to address major issues in the Nigerian health sector. Started by Oluwasoga Oni, Genevieve Barnard, Joe McCord, and Opeyemi Ologun, the startup, the company is a conglomerate of some sort, with brands servicing different arms of the heath care value chain.
It was originally created to deliver medical devices to locations where they were needed most. By importing low-cost and refurbished medical equipments from different countries, MDaaS leases them out for use by medical centers anywhere in the country. Its approach makes some sense.
With the economic and financial situation of Nigeria, access to quality healthcare is both expensive and not readily available. Newer medical devices are also quite expensive and out of reach for thousands of medical providers.
These have contributed to the poor state of Nigeria’s health care industry. The Nigerian government on their part has given little support to the industry. Health accounts for around $1.6 billion of Nigeria’s annual GDP according to MDaaS. And in Nigeria’s 2019 budget, health is one sector with the lowest allocation. The government budgeted N315 billion for healthcare, compared to the N569.07 billion allocated to the country’s interior ministry.
However MDaaS is forging ahead despite little government support for the industry. The startup has grown gradually for the last few years. It now works with more than 60 medical institutions to deliver diagnostic equipment. And in 2017, it opened its first diagnostic centre in Ibadan.
And in 2018, the company was accepted into Techstars’ accelerator program in Texas, US. As a participant, the company received $120,000 funding as well industry and network support that are crucial to growth.
Now, however, the company is on the expansion path. According to Mobolaji Adeoye, Managing Partner at Consonance Investment Managers, MDaaS’s expansion plan is a key reason they invested in the company.
“Africa significantly trails global metrics in affordable and quality healthcare”, she says. “MDaaS’ mission to build the physical and technological infrastructure required to provide affordable diagnostic services across Africa fits our investment theme.”
