Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
General Atlantic has led other investors to pump about $40 million into Reliance Health, making it the largest investment in healthtech on the African continent.
The other investors in the Series B round were Partech, Picus Capital, Tencent Exploration, Africa Healthcare Master Fund, P1 Ventures, Laerdal Million Lives Fund and M3 Inc.
The fresh capital would be used to further drive the expansion of the Nigerian healthtech startup with plans to build two more clinic facilities in Abuja and Port Harcourt.
The company is also planning to hire talent and scale new product lines, especially for Nigerians in the diaspora.
The healthtech company will expand into new markets, noting that another one of Africa’s top investment destinations – Egypt is top of that list, as it has already hired a country manager to launch by mid this year.
This investment is coming two years after the company’s $6 million Series A in January 2020.
Reliance previously raised a $2 million seed round months post-YC in 2017. Investors in both rounds included Partech, Y Combinator, Golden Palm Investments, Ventures Platform, Lofty Inc– and Tencent and Picus, who have participated in the three rounds totalling $48 million.
In an interview with TechCrunch, Mr Femi Kuti, the company’s Chief Executive Officer said, “Our mission is super simple. I mean, the definition is simple, but the execution is sometimes more difficult than that.
“So, essentially, what we’re trying to do is to use technology to make quality health care accessible and affordable in emerging markets.”
On the part of the lead investor, Mr Chris Caulkin, the managing director of General Atlantic and head of EMEA Technology said – “General Atlantic is thrilled to announce our first technology investment in Africa in Reliance Health, backing a team focused on improving healthcare quality for millions of patients in Nigeria and abroad.”
“We have been consistently impressed by Femi and Ope (founders), who exemplify the entrepreneurialism and innovation we see across the African continent,” he added.
The company was founded in 2016 by Femi Kuti, Opeyemi Olumekun and Matthew Mayaki. It uses an integrated process to provide health insurance and telemedicine via partnerships with hospitals and healthcare facilities.
With an app, customers can chat with a doctor, find healthcare providers near them to visit or get medications from and manage the delivery of their drugs.
