The startup recently entered Egypt, its fourth market in Africa, after Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana. It is now eyeing North and East Africa, to continue its growth, which is driven by mergers and acquisitions.<\/p>\n
The startup\u2019s founder and CEO, Dr. Sangu Delle, told TechCrunch that they are in the process of setting up telemedicine centers in their facilities and building \u201cmicro-tech-enabled-clinics\u201d targeting the masses. This will grow CarePoint\u2018s, formerly known as Africa Health Holdings, portfolio beyond in-person visits.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe micro-clinics will have, at most, 12 employees, including a nurse. The patients will consult with doctors virtually. We are taking this route because we realized that as much as the mobile subscription in Africa is great and growing, if you look at it from an internet penetration perspective, so many people are still locked out because they cannot afford mobile data,\u201d said Delle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese clinics are a way of democratizing access, and taking quality healthcare closer to the people, while making it affordable to them too,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Patients are also able to access care virtually through CarePoint\u2019s MyCareMobile app, which links them to diverse services through teleconferencing, including consultations with their doctors, test results and 24-hour emergency response.<\/p>\n
The startup is backed by five brands, including Sahe in Egypt, Meridian Health Group in Kenya, Rabito Clinic in Ghana and Nigeria\u2019s Care Point and Lilys Hospitals, operating a total of 65 facilities.<\/p>\n
Delle founded CarePoint after a lengthy career as an investor and CEO at Golden Palm Investments, a venture firm with an interest in early-stage opportunities in Africa, where he still serves as the chairman.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt Golden Palm we built a very active venture capital practice and invested in many of the leading tech startups today \u2014 including Flutterwave and mPharma. So, everything about CarePoint started at Golden Palm since it incubates businesses too,\u201d said Delle, a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader, and a Harvard and Oxford graduate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe first started looking at healthcare because we realized that for us to have any socio-economic transformation, we have to solve healthcare challenges too. And to contextualize it, we (Africa) have about 16% of the global population, 26% of the global disease burden, but only 3% of global healthcare workers and 1% of global healthcare resources. We need to urgently bridge the gap, or we\u2019re going to be in real trouble,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Delle appealed for urgent action and investment in the healthcare sector, especially given that the continent\u2019s population is expected to almost double in the next three decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom our thesis and pilot, we believe we can use technology as a key competitive differentiator to democratize access, and improve the quality of care,\u201d said Delle.<\/p>\n
Delle said CarePoint will use part of the funding to build data science and AI teams to strengthen its technological resources, in addition to introducing new products.<\/p>\n
The latest funding round was led by TRB Advisors, and brings the total funding raised by CarePoint to $30 million. It follows an $18 million Series A round announced mid-November last year.<\/p>\n
New and existing investors that took part in the bridge round include Delle, Breyer Capital, Beyond Capital Ventures (BCV), M3, Inc, Asia Pacific Land\/ Natural World Limited and Alan Waxman, who is Sixth Street Partners\u2019 CEO.<\/p>\n
Eva Yazhari, a general partner at BCV, said, \u201cCarePoint is at the forefront of creating solutions through its three core pillars of a scaled network of healthcare facilities, a strong technology backbone, and patient-centered care highlighted by the first Africa-focused healthcare data repository.\u201d<\/p>\n
The BCV also recently invested in Kasha Global, a femtech retailer in East Africa and Viebeg, a heathtech company streamlining the medical supply chain in Eastern and Central Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeyond Capital Ventures is excited to participate in CarePoint\u2019s Series B bridge round, and will work with Dr. Sangu Delle to scale an emerging technology-driven healthcare system in Africa\u2026 CarePoint is capturing demographic shifts to transform Africa into the next frontier for healthcare and transform health outcomes,\u201d said Yazhari.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CarePoint, a technology-driven healthcare startup, has raised a $10 million bridge round to accelerate its growth across Africa as it seeks to make healthcare accessible to the masses.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12963,"featured_media":8331,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,21],"tags":[7,26,22],"class_list":{"0":"post-8334","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-technology","9":"tag-apie-project","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-technology"},"yoast_head":"\n