KENYA – Helium Health, a Lagos-based HealthTech provider, has launched its operations in Kenya to offer services in Electronic Medical Records(EMR) and Hospital Management Information(HMI) systems.
The company is in partnership with Philips Healthcare Technologies, Carepay and Savannah Informatics, who are local service providers, to integrate new services, including an EMR to serve the entire East African market.
Launched in 2016, Helium Health is the largest Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Hospital Management Information (HMI) Systems provider in West Africa.
Venturing into the Kenyan market follows a plan the company conceived in 2020, following a $10 million fund raised for expansion. Helium planned to use the funding to hire and expand to North and East Africa, including Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Morocco, according to Adogoke Olubusi, a co-founder of the start-up.
“We have been planning to expand into Kenya’s thriving health tech sector since last year, so we’re very excited to be hitting the ground running in 2021, already working with three new local partners to help improve efficiencies and provide a better service to patients,” Tito Ovia, Helium Health co-founder, said.
The partners are optimistic the newly found collaboration will play a major role in supporting both Kenya’s public and private healthcare sectors. Helium Health has already partnered with facilities in Uganda and Liberia, onboarding their 90-plus users early in 2021 and is now extending its services to facilities in Nairobi.
”We are delighted to announce that we are open for business, already working with three new partners in Nairobi, and rolling out in Uganda and Liberia. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role of technology in healthcare, and the need to keep building better systems, to develop more remote access solutions, and to improve efficiencies in our healthcare sector,” Jean Kyula, Country Manager for Helium Health Kenya, said.
Helium Health offers a full suite of products covering the complete healthcare value chain, from Electronic Medical Records (EMR), and Hospital Management Information (HMI) Systems, to credit and telemedicine products.
In 2020, Helium Health won the IFC Tech Emerge award, an award that matches innovative health tech startups with leading healthcare providers across Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to implement pilot projects and build long-term partnerships.
The African health tech space has enjoyed considerable growth in recent times, many thanks to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. According to reports, funding into health tech companies in Nigeria rose 404% in 2020, driven by the global health pandemic.
The situation isn’t different in the rest of Africa. Helium Health raised $10 million in May last year. 54Gene, an African genomics startup, which was actively involved in the Covid-19 fight, raised $15 million.
mPharma, a Ghanaian startup, raised 17 million much later in the same year. While these don’t come anywhere close to funds raised by fintechs, they, however, tell the story of a thriving space.