Nigerian healthtech, Reliance Health sets record in General Atlantic-led $40M Series B round
Reliance Health, an emerging markets-focused digital healthcare provider has today announced the completion of a $40M Series B funding round led by General Atlantic, a leading global growth equity investor, with participation from Partech, Picus Capital, Tencent Exploration, AAIC (Asia Africa Investment and Consulting), P1 Ventures, Laerdal Million Lives Fund, M3,Inc., and Arvantis Social Foundation.
This funding has set Reliance Health apart as the first African healthtech startup to successfully close the largest Series B round. The new partnership also marks General Atlantic’s first technology investment in the continent.
The healthtech startup has now raised $48M in total funding, including a $6M Series A funding round in January 2020 led by Partech, with participation from Y Combinator, LoftyInc Capital, Golden Palm Investments, Ventures Platform, and Picus Capital.
Reliance Health leverages technology to provide affordable and accessible healthcare to leading companies in emerging markets, including Beiersdorf Nivea, Jumia, PWC, Merrybet, Regus, and others.
Reliance claims it has averaged 3.5x year on year revenue growth and offers an integrated approach that includes flat fee healthcare plans, telemedicine, prescription delivery, and a combination of partner and proprietary healthcare facilities in one single platform with one single fee.
The startup was founded by Femi Kuti, Opeyemi Olumekun, and Matthew Mayaki in 2015. It started its operations in Nigeria in same year as a telemedicine-focused startup, Kangpe, it later expanded into a single-fee healthcare provider to better address the complex, evolving needs of patients in the country. It has its Headquarters in Lagos, Nigeria and Austin, Texas, United States.
The fresh capital would be utilized to further accelerate the expansion of the Nigerian healthtech startup with plans to build two more clinic facilities in Abuja and Port Harcourt. The startup is also planning to hire top talents and scale new product lines that complement existing proprietary technology, facilities, and partnerships.
Reliance Health targets expansion into new markets, especially one of the Africa’s top investment destinations, Egypt, as it has already hired a country manager for the north African country to launch by mid this year.
Reliance Health operates business-to-business and business-to-customers models. Reliance HMO is the company’s health insurance plan for both sets of customers where individuals can select monthly, quarterly or yearly health plans ranging from (~$7.00) – (~$297.00). On the other hand, businesses can make subscriptions on behalf of their employees, which Kuti said are slightly cheaper than plans used by retail customers.
“Healthcare in emerging markets is often overlooked by private initiatives because it’s an extremely complex challenge to solve. At Reliance Health, by leveraging new innovations to break the constraints of legacy solutions, we believe there is an opportunity to solve some of these tough problems and even for aspects of healthcare in emerging markets to leapfrog to other parts of the world. Femi Kuti, Reliance Health CEO and Co-Founder said. Adding that they were excited to work with investors towards bringing affordable healthcare to underserved markets.
Chris Caulkin, Head of EMEA Technology and Managing Director at General Atlantic expressed delight in the partnership.
“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, who exemplify the entrepreneurialism and innovation we see across the African continent. We look forward to sharing our experience as a leading global growth equity investor in support of Reliance Health’s exciting and important mission.” He added.
“We led Reliance Health’s Series A because we saw a team that combines great vision with superb execution. They have proven this by delivering a product that is successful with large corporate as well as micro-businesses, opening up access to healthcare for underserved segments of the population. All of the Partech team feels proud and excited to see top global investors join the company as it scales in Nigeria as well as new markets,” said Tidjane Dème, General Partner at Partech.
“Financial barriers prevent millions of people from receiving the life-saving and life-improving care that they need in low- and middle-income countries. Ensuring equitable access to healthcare coverage is something we care deeply about as mission-driven healthcare investors, and we’re honored to partner with Femi Kuti and the entire Reliance Health team to help scale their offering to achieve the largest potential impact,” Jeff Trost, Managing Partner at Laerdal Million Lives Fund, added.