Nigerian Entrepreneurs Raise $10 Million to Transform Africa’s Healthcare

The African healthcare system has been long outdated still running manual operations amid the advent of helpful technologies. The structure of the African health system resulted in lower efficiency and accuracy compared to what it could become if the necessary requirements are put in place.

With this as a great concern, three Nigerians entrepreneurs – Adegoke Olubusi, Tito Ovia, and Dimeji Sofowora were prompted in 2016 to better the African healthcare system. The team recently launched a technology-based healthcare entity, Helium Health. This healthcare provider will operate in several African countries.

According to Forbes, the three co-founders of Helium Health, who are also Forbes 30 Under 30 honorees announced on Thursday that the company had raised $10 million in “Series A, led by Global Ventures and Asia Africa Investment & Consulting (AAIC).” Also present were: Tencent, HOF Capital, Ohara Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, VentureSouq, Chrysalis Capital, Y Combinator, Kairos Angels, and Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company.

With the recently raised funds, the company hopes to expand its reach beyond Nigeria, Ghana, and Liberia. CEO Adegoke Olabusi said that the “extent of the challenges and problems” in the African healthcare sector spurs the company’s determination to solve the existing problems in the healthcare sector, and see growth in a “million ways.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, if you get in an accident and there isn’t a strong emergency department, you will die,” says Olabusi. “Because of the Covid-19 situation, now these countries are having to face the harsh reality of not investing in their healthcare sector.”

According to Olabusi, Helium Health seeks to provide a solution to three major areas of the African healthcare sector: inefficiency, fragmentation, and lack of data.

“Imagine if a hospital sees a 1000 people a day… How do you count a 1000 people every day with specific issues they need to be taken care of when you’re doing everything on paper?” Olabusi said.

The company’s flagship product is the Electronic Medical Records/Hospital Management Information System, an end-to-end software that would help the hospitals manage and digitally compute and store data. The product is currently being used in over 300 hospitals across Africa and serves averagely 165,000 patients on a monthly basis.

The coronavirus pandemic has presented the company with another opportunity to develop several new products, with the Helium Teleclinic as the most sought after. The Helium Teleclinic is a device that enables brick-n-mortar hospitals have televisits with their patients without having physical contact with the patients. Olabusi describes the demand for the product as “incredible” with over 250 hospitals signed up. He also says that more than half of the hospitals have never worked with the company before.

Helium Health hopes that the new products will help expand their reach to other African countries like Uganda, Kenya, Morocco, Egypt, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Tunisia, and Senegal.

The Helium Health is a company with great potentials and has so far raised a total of $12 million, with its first $2 million seed round in the Y Combinator class of 2017. Today, the company has over 100 employees.