NIGERIA – Nigeria’s Healthtech Healthtracka has secured US1.5M in seed funding to power digital diagnostics and empower healthcare providers to reach their customers where they are comfortable in an effort to improve patient outcomes in Africa.
The seed funding round was co-led by Africa-focused early-stage VC Ingressive Capital and US-based venture fund Hustle Fund with participation from Alumni Angel Alliance, Flying Doctors and a number of angel investors.
Founded in May 2021 in Lagos by Ifeoluwa Dare-Johnson and Victor Amusan, Healthtracka brings telemedicine solutions to gaps in access, quality and affordability of medical care by enabling faster detection of health conditions through an online platform that offers accurate, timely disease diagnosis.
Diagnostics is at the center of healthcare; without it, doctors and physicians cannot offer treatment.
Healthtracka’s offering is a website where individuals can book their laboratory tests online, have their samples collected at home and get their results via email within 48 hours. The tests range from fertility and sexually transmitted diseases tests to full body count and COVID-19 tests.
The healthtech company partners with laboratory centers which send their phlebotomists to customers’ homes to diagnose. The healthtech team’s experience in the diagnostic field helps it create quality checklists to vet these lab centers, one of which is meeting the standard ISO laboratory accreditation.
In addition, the e-health firm works with doctors and specialists to review results for further consultation. A typical test covers phlebotomists’ trips and doctors’ reviewing results and customers pay extra when Healthtracka connects them with specialists if the diagnosis is worrying.
Healthtracka seeks to address healthcare infrastructure challenges facing Africa where the doctor to patient ratio stands at a staggering 1:5,000 coupled with patient’s inconsistency in attending routine medical checkups including waiting times and slow doctor consultations when present in a hospital.
For instance, patients are required to visit hospitals for laboratory tests after most doctor consultations which makes up to 70% of all clinical decision-making but there’s the issue of convenience where patients feel reluctant to visit a laboratory or hospital.
The Lagos-based digital diagnostics player will use the recent funding to pursue more growth and diversify its revenue streams including launching subscription plans for its retail customers to help reach more people, save more lives and ensure that healthcare is better in Africa.
Healthtracka will also use the financing to improve access to its offering for telehealth service providers, hospitals and pharmacies to provide at-home blood testing for their patients as well as extend its presence beyond seven Nigerian cities to Kenya and Ghana before the end of the year.
Healthtracka Founder Ifeoluwa Dare-Johnson revealed that Healthtracka’s network of phlebotomists has increased 20x since its launch to over 100 and the company has delivered close to 7,000 tests at home while its revenue is growing 30% month on month as a result.
“The funding will assist Healthtracka in its next growth phase as it scales its B2B2C offering where partner companies in Nigeria can deliver at-home testing to their employees. Our progress has moved from being B2C to an infrastructure play, somehow,” Dare-Johnson explained.
Liked this article? Sign up to receive our regular email newsletters, focused on Africa and World’s healthcare industry, directly into your inbox. SUBSCRIBE HERE