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Ilara Health, a healthtech business that digitizes and consolidates Kenya’s severely fragmented primary care, has closed a $4.2 million pre-series A investment of stock and debt. DOB Equity leads the round, which also includes follow-on equity investments from AAIC INVESTMENT, Angaza Capital, Black Pearl Investments, and Perivoli Innovations, as well as debt investments from Alphamundi and Kiva Capital. Philips Foundation and Boehringer Ingelheim are new to the round. The new partners are strategic healthcare investors with extensive expertise working with and investing in firms in the global healthcare sector.
Ilara Health plans to use the latest capital injection to scale its tech-enabled primary care model across Kenya before moving into other regions. With this recent fundraising, the company’s total investment to far has reached $11.7 million, which includes several funding rounds, such as a $3.75 million seed round in 2020, as well as multiple awards, including two $1.6 million grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation.
Founded in 2019 by Emilian Popa, Maximilian Mancini, and Sameer Afzal Farooqi, Ilara Health aims to provide affordable and accessible quality healthcare in Kenya’s peri-urban areas. The company began by tackling the diagnostics gap that primary healthcare centers in the region face as a result of major differences in availability and quality testing. Ilara Health’s initial strategy provided revenue-generating diagnostic assets, allowing clinics to quickly develop their companies while also offering flexible payback plans and patient testing training. The company has since grown to digitize all end-to-end activities, harnessing data to improve its infrastructure business model. This involves assisting clinics in electronically managing their patient base and being a one-stop shop for diagnostic tools, consumables, and medications.
The investment will enable Ilara Health’s focus for the next 12 months, which is to achieve significant topline growth, continue to expand the already large partner clinic network, and incorporate the next phase of growth into its model, which includes the launch of employee health services through B2B health & occupational services, initially in select locations and later across the country. This is to improve the Ilara Health branded clinics and increase revenue, demonstrating a path to profitability as the operational base remains largely steady. The healthtech company also wants to create internal operational efficiency and launch an equity and debt financing round to support the working capital investments that will power its growth aspirations. To demonstrate our business model’s long-term data-driven potential, we will also make significant investments in technology and proprietary Practice Management Software (PMS). Live data from the PMS will allow the start-up to analyse the performance of primary care providers in order to provide follow-on asset lending and working capital ranging from $10,000 to $15,000 for clinic rejuvenations, staff training, diagnostic equipment provision, and a ‘powered by Ilara Health’ co-branding initiative. The company currently has 8 clinics covered by these follow-on investments and co-branding, with hopes to increase to 50 by the end of this year.
Speaking on the round, Emilian Popa, CEO and Co-founder of Ilara Health, stated that the company was founded with one common purpose in mind: to improve the quality of healthcare for Africans. We genuinely believe that healthcare should be inexpensive and accessible to all, and I am proud of the measurable impact we have made in such a short period of time. There is still much work to be done, which is why we are delighted to be joined by notable global investors who share our basic vision for Kenya and, ultimately, Africa. This fundraiser will support our continued growth, and we look forward to delivering uniform quality healthcare across the continent.”
Kenya has approximately 10,000 privately held primary care institutions and another 7,000 that are publicly operated. Ilara Health’s expansion momentum has resulted in partnerships with over 3,000 of these clinics to provide improved healthcare across 42 Kenyan counties, serving over 5 million patients annually.
Margot Cooijmans, Director of Philips Foundation Impact Investments said, “Supporting Ilara Health reflects Philips Foundation’s effort to improve healthcare access through innovation, aligning with our goal to make quality healthcare available for all. This investment is a practical step towards bridging the healthcare gap, focusing on solutions that can be implemented in communities that need them the most.”
Bahaa Eddine Sarroukh, Impact Investment Lead at Philips Foundation said, “Ilara Health represents a significant stride forward in healthcare innovation, blending technology and finance in a manner that is both pioneering and profoundly impactful. Their approach goes beyond mere access; it’s about empowering the healthcare providers at the grassroots level with the tools and financial models they need to thrive. This blend is not just unique—it’s a critical enabler for expanding quality healthcare to those who need it most, setting a new standard for what’s possible in healthcare delivery across Africa.”
Hayo Afman, Managing Director at DOB Equity said, “Having supported Ilara Health and its founders since the beginning, we are enthusiastic about the progress and the notable improvement of patient outcomes thus far. We look forward to collaborating with our new partners to support the team in redefining the standard of medical care in Africa.”
Christian Bausch, at Boehringer Ingelheim said, “Ilara Health’s plan to decentralise financing for primary care clinics captured our hearts. We value companies and entrepreneurs that create innovative solutions that push the envelope and are proud to support Ilara Health as they address an unmet demand of clinics in Kenya and Sub Saharan Africa.”
Hiroki Ishida, Director at AAIC Partners Africa said, “Primary care represents one of the most challenging areas for business model development. Nevertheless, it serves as the foundation of the healthcare sector. As a healthcare-focused fund in Africa, I have confidence in the team’s capabilities, and I anticipate their role as innovators on this continent.”
Ilara Health intends to use its innovative tech infrastructure to bridge the estimated $66 billion financing gap and outdated processes affecting healthcare delivery across the African continent as a whole.
