Nigerian Health-Tech Startup, MDaaS Global Raises $2.3 million, Launches E-Diagnostic Feature

Nigerian health-tech startup, MDaaS Global has closed a seed extension funding round of $2.3 million to scale across Nigeria.

The round was led by early-stage VC firm Newtown Partners, which invested via its Imperial Venture Fund, CRI Foundation. Return investors include FINCA Ventures, Techstars, and Future Africa.

The startup also announced the launch of a new product, SentinelX, a digital health membership that champions preventive, personalized, and continuous care using proprietary technology.

SentinelX which is currently in private beta and will go live in September 2021, acts as a personalized care program where patients pay a one-time fee of N35k (~$70) and access a doctor all year round. Through SentinelX, MDaaS is trying to get as many people as possible to cheaply pre-screen themselves for one year then pay for full value the next year after seeing the benefits of regular checkups.

According to Oni, the health tech startup wants to become one of Nigeria’s three largest diagnostic centers. Oni also noted that MDaaS would consider a pan-African expansion to similar countries like Nigeria. But by 2025, the company aims to operate 100 centers across the continent and serve a million patients per year.

The extension round brings MDaaS Global’s total funding to date to $3.7 million. In addition to the launch of SentinelX, this new funding is aimed at helping the company rapidly scale its physical footprint across Nigeria to become the largest diagnostic chain in the country.

Launched in 2016 by Oluwasoga Oni, Opeyemi Ologun, Genevieve Barnard Oni, and Joseph McCord, MDaaS an abbreviation for medical devices-as-a-service is building Africa’s largest network of physical and virtual diagnostic and primary care facilities to provide convenient, high-quality, and affordable healthcare for the continent’s next billion.

Since its launch, the healthcare startup has provided diagnostic services to over 40,000 patients in underserved communities. It has also performed over 80,000 diagnostics tests across cardiology, radiology, neurology, laboratory, and general health checks. Over 750 clinicians use its referral network, and it has locked partnerships with more than 500 health facilities and 10 HMO networks.