SOUTH AFRICA – Stockholm-based company Cardo Health has launched its telemedicine app Kena Health in South Africa to improve access to affordable and high-quality care, provide better patient experiences and reduce societal costs.
The company will address the challenge of many citizens in emerging markets lacking access to proper medical care due to high dependency on public healthcare and unaffordable private insurances.
The app offers on-demand and scheduled consultations with nurses, general practitioners and mental health professionals to ensure early detection and treatment of health conditions as well as easy access to primary healthcare.
Currently, Africa has the lowest patient-to-doctor ratio in the world with 0.23 doctors for every 10,000 people in comparison to 84.2 doctors in the most developed countries thus digital solutions offer a great opportunity to bridge this gap.
Kena Health is a subsidiary of Cardo Health which was founded by Tobias Strålin to invest in and scale the best early stage digital health start-ups in emerging markets to improve the health and wellbeing of millions of people.
The telemedicine application targets the millions of uninsured citizens who are dependent on stressed public health systems using a B2C freemium business model to provide affordable, high-quality healthcare.
With the Kena application launch in South Africa, Cardo Health hopes to further roll-out digital health solutions in several other African countries in the near future.
Cardo Health aims to expand into more markets through its co-owned companies namely ViBe Saúde in Brazil and Kena Health in South Africa to become the leading digital health player in the Sub-Saharan African region.
“With an excellent team, proven technology and growing traction, Kena Health has great potential to become the leading digital health player in Sub Saharan Africa while making a truly positive change for millions of people,” Tobias Strålin, Founder of Cardo Health.
Furthermore, the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated regulatory approvals as well as the consumption of digital health services which seeks to transform the health sector in emerging markets such as Cardo.
Previously, Cardo Health secured US$17.5 million in a funding round to take digital health to emerging markets with hopes to address the pain points in healthcare systems and improve the health of millions of people.
The series A-round funding was led by investors such as unicorn builders, industry insiders along with senior executives and board members from leading financial and professional institutions.
The company aims to leverage its proven and scalable business concept to expand into an additional nine countries with a total population of one billion people by 2023.
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