Aruwa Capital Management, an early-stage growth equity and gender lens fund investing in Nigeria and Ghana, has announced a $1.5m investment in MDaaS Global, a modern, tech-enabled healthcare company enabling clinically underserved communities, access to quality and affordable healthcare and diagnostic services across Africa. 

The round was co-led by Aruwa Capital Management and Newtown Partners, an existing investor along with participation from Ventures Platform.

Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, Founder & Managing Partner of Aruwa Capital, said: “We are thrilled to complete this investment in MDaaS, with 17 centres already in operation, the Company has proven its playbook in redefining healthcare accessibility in Africa.” 

Through this investment, the Company will extend the reach of quality and affordable healthcare to clinically underserved communities across Nigeria and Africa, he said. 

“This expansion will also create more employment opportunities in underserved communities, bolstering local economies and improving livelihoods,” he added.

In line with Aruwa’s gender lens investing strategy, MDaaS is co-founded by a woman, 48% of the senior management are women, half of the total workforce are women and more than 60% of their annual patients are women. MDaaS caters to predominantly women of reproductive age in underserved communities and is committed to addressing crucial healthcare needs to those that would traditionally not have access. We are excited to partner with the Company in this next phase of growth to make quality healthcare accessible in clinically underserved communities.”

Founded in 2016 by Oluwasoga Oni, Genevieve Oni, Joseph McCord and Opeyemi Ologun, MDaaS was founded based on the recognition of a severe shortage of quality and affordable diagnostic services across Nigeria and Africa, where only 1% of healthcare facilities had the capacity for diagnostics, leading to limited access to essential diagnostic services for millions of Nigerians and Africans. 

The Company is building healthcare for Africa’s next billion by building a modern, technology enabled healthcare network through their high-quality infrastructure that provides essential services in clinically underserved communities. 

Powered by a technology platform that optimises internal operations and reduces friction for all stakeholders, Mdaas is leveraging on their clinical data and strategic partnerships to drive innovations that improve the lives of all Nigerians and Africans.

MDaaS has since inception built this critical and modern infrastructure across 8 states in Nigeria, operating 17 diagnostic centres in underserved communities, mostly outside the capital city Lagos. 

The Company offers high-quality diagnostic services at affordable prices to low- and middle-income patients and has partnered with over 60 corporates and health management organisations, over 1,000 medical doctors and 100 pharmacies to distribute affordable healthcare to more than 200,000 patients, over half of whom are women. 

In Nigeria, where an estimated $1 billion is spent annually on medical tourism, with less than 50% of Nigerians having access to modern healthcare facilities, especially outside of big cities, high-quality care is unaffordable for most Nigerians, 70% of healthcare spending is out-of-pocket, and only c.3% of the population have health insurance coverage leading most Nigerians to seek low-quality care alternatives. This results in a large addressable market for the Company in Nigeria alone with total private health expenditure on diagnostics in Nigeria forecasted to grow to $2.8 billion by 2024 according to Global Health Expenditure.

This investment would enable the Company to expand its infrastructure across more states in Nigeria, leveraging on the Company’s proven business model and network built to date to distribute modern, quality, sustainable and affordable healthcare to Nigerians, delivering long-term value to key stakeholders such as patients, providers, employers and health management organisations.