NIGERIA— Clafiya, a Nigerian digital healthcare startup, announced that its pre-seed round, a mix of Venture Capital funds, angel investors, and grants, has managed to raise US$610,000.
The Nigerian health-tech startup offers end-to-end healthcare solutions, including online consultations, medicine delivery, and partnerships with Health Management Organisations.
The round saw contributions from investors like Norrsken Accelerator, Acquired Wisdom Fund (AWF), Hustle Fund, Voltron Capital, Microtraction, Ajim Capital, HoaQ, Bold Angel Fund, Shivdasani Family, and other angel investors.
The health tech company founded in 2021 and currently operates in Lagos and Enugu, notes that the investment will finance product development and team expansion.
Through in-person and virtual consultations, it connects patients with healthcare professionals, allowing them to get medical advice and treatment without the hassle of hospital visits.
Jennie Nwokoye, CEO of Clafiya, in an interview with TechCabal, said, “During the virtual consultation, the patient is connected to a doctor via video call, making it feel like an online clinic has come to their home.”
Nwokoye added that their initial goal was to bring healthcare closer to those who preferred avoiding hospitals, but their customers started requesting assistance with drug delivery, diagnostics, and mental health service and hence evolved into an online primary healthcare clinic.
The platform facilitates medicine delivery to patients’ doorsteps, eliminating the need for arduous trips to the pharmacy.
The startup’s end-to-end healthcare service also includes the convenient collection of diagnostic testing samples directly from patients’ residences.
Additionally, Clafiya also connects users to gyms, nutrition clinics, wellness centers, and other specialized well-being services.
Subsequently, the startup has partnered with providers of such services as i-Fitness, Khairo Diet Clinic, Blueroomcare, Pharmarun, and Famasi Africa.
Clafiya indicates that the funds will help introduce a business platform that allows well-meaning businesses to purchase health plans for their employees to keep their productivity levels high.
Additionally, the start-up will expand its reach and partnerships to even more cities in Nigeria and operational partners.
Finally, the funds will help the startup hire great minds and talent, to build an amazing healthcare company that will change the way we access and receive healthcare.
The upstart ready to shake up the Nigeria health tech space
Nwokoye narrated that Clafiya was born from her personal experience as a child where she witnessed her family’s struggle to access quality healthcare in Nigeria ignited a relentless drive for change.
Eventually, that experience planted the seed of Clafiya, as we know it today, in her heart, from a very young age.
Starting from Enugu, Clafiya has offered affordable and quality healthcare services to Nigerians and since then expanded to other cities in Nigeria such as Lagos and Abuja.
Similarly, the startup has grown its team to 24 talented people working to reimagine what healthcare service delivery could look like in Nigeria.
Nwokoye notes that fixing healthcare in Nigeria, makes sense commercially, as the startup has also grown our revenue by 15%.
In 2018, the Nigerian healthcare market was valued at US$15 billion with an expected growth rate of 20% over the next five years.
Clafiya makes money from the services it provides to over 3,000 individuals and hundreds of businesses that use it to offer health insurance to their employees.
It also makes a shared profit from the pharmacies, health centers, and wellness providers it partners with.
Speaking on Microtraction’s early investment in Clafiya, Dayo Koleowo, a Partner at Microtraction, said, “Clafiya’s mission to provide seamless access to primary healthcare for Africans and the approach to tackling the existing underperforming alternatives was interesting to us at Microtraction.”
Koleowo added that Microtraction wasted no time in being the first institutional investor because the VC was simply impressed by the team’s experience, their go-to-market strategy, and the huge market opportunity identified.
Nwokoye reassured that their priority lay in building trust with their customers and ensuring they receive the best possible experience and by putting customer satisfaction at the forefront, Clafiya aims to gradually change healthcare-seeking behaviors and encourage responsible healthcare utilization.
“We hope you will join us as we reimagine healthcare service delivery in Nigeria, and then for the rest of Africa,” Nwokoye concluded.
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