Healthtech company MDaaS Global is closing on $1 million seed funding deal to replicate its innovative diagnostic centre business model across West Africa.
Led by Consonance Investment Managers, with participation from Techstars, FINCA Ventures, an investment initiative of FINCA International, and others, the round will see MDaaS expand operations, supporting the company’s plan to open 100 additional centres in Nigeria and West Africa over the next five years.
MDaaS Global is building a network of tech-enabled diagnostic facilities in Nigeria.
MDaaS was created to address the lack of high-quality, affordable diagnostic services available for low- and middle-income sub-Saharan Africans, starting with Nigeria’s 130 million low- and middle-income patients. Where available and up-to-date, health services are unaffordable for most of Nigeria’s population, and expensive out-of-pocket costs discourage patients. MDaaS leverages its vertically-integrated supply chain, technology platform, and patient-centred design to provide modern, convenient services at a price point patients can afford. It offers a wide array of high-impact diagnostic procedures from simple malaria tests to echocardiograms and pap smears. And MDaaS’ affordability is helping change the healthcare narrative, with basic procedures, like obstetric ultrasounds, starting at just $4.
Founded in 2016 by Oluwasoga Oni, Opeyemi Ologun, Genevieve Barnard Oni, and Joseph McCord, MDaaS was incubated at MIT’s Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship and was part of the inaugural Techstars Impact class of 2018. The company launched its flagship diagnostic centre in Ibadan, Nigeria’s 3rd most populous city, in November 2017 under its patient- and physician-facing brand BeaconHealth. To date, the company has served over 9,000 low- and middle-income patients, speedily identifying health issues and connecting them with a variety of medical specialists and affordable treatment options.
Having partnered with over 60 referring health facilities, MDaaS serves as the centralised diagnostic department for surrounding hospitals and clinics within Ibadan. It also partners globally with corporates, health maintenance organisations (HMOs), and developmental organisations seeking top-tier diagnostics for their employees and beneficiaries.
Speaking on the funding, Oluwasoga Oni, MDaaS Global’s CEO and co-founder, said the funding round fuels the company’s next phase of growth, allowing it to continue providing modern, connected healthcare for Africa’s next billion.
“With diagnostics as the bedrock of modern medicine and key to the treatment of diseases like cancer, heart disease, and diabetes – which are on the rise within the continent – unbridled access to quality healthcare is crucial. We are immensely proud of our brick-and-mortar presence; merging physical patient care with state-of-the-art technology enables us to reach more patients with the care that they deserve.”
It is estimated that 40 percent of the medical equipment in sub-Saharan Africa is currently obsolete or out of service. On a continent where public healthcare is chronically underfunded – receiving less than five percent of GDP- MDaaS presents the opportunity to bolster poorly-equipped hospitals and clinics in what is evaluated to be a $1.6 billion market in Nigeria alone.
ODINAKA ANUDU
