South Africa – Nedbank Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB) has invested in a minority equity interest in LifeQ Global, a disruptive health-tech innovator and provider of biometrics and health information derived from wearable devices.
Last week, life insurer and financial services provider 1Life, LifeQ and Samsung SA joined forces to launch the LifeQ COVID-19 app.
The launch came at a time when some South African provinces were already in the throes of the COVID-19 third wave, with Gauteng experiencing a greater surge than the rest of the country.
Nedbank says the data collected by LifeQ is used by many of the world’s leading health solutions providers to inform their science-based health data analytics, with the ultimate aim of positively impacting the future of health for their members and customers.
According to Johann van Zyl, Nedbank CIB Venture Capital lead, the investment forms part of a global fundraising campaign by LifeQ, which saw the business secure $47 million from a variety of prominent investors around the world.
Other funding investors include OneBio, Invenfin, 4Di Capital, Allen & Co, Analog Devices, Convergence Partners, Hannover Re and Rachel Diamond.
“Nedbank CIB’s investment in LifeQ is perfectly aligned with our mission to proactively seek out opportunities for our clients and our own business to invest in disruptive and innovative technology companies that are category-defining,” Van Zyl explains.
“We are excited to facilitate mutually beneficial collaborations between LifeQ and our ecosystem to identify and unlock further potential for growth and value creation at scale.”
LifeQ’s platform creates real potential for scalable monetization opportunities for health management providers, as well as an assortment of verticals, such as insurance, fitness, real estate, preventative care, clinical care, product enhancement for hardware manufacturers and commerce platforms.
Zyl pointed out that the severe global impact of COVID-19 on the health and well-being of people and communities has highlighted the fact that the world currently finds itself in a global health crisis – exacerbated by sedentary lifestyles, increased work demands, unhealthy foods – all of which are resulting in rapid increases in chronic illnesses like obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular ailments.
“LifeQ has already been integrated into some of the world’s most innovative wearable products, meaning that it is already helping to address these health challenges via tailored disease detection, prevention and accurate risk flagging,” Van Zyl says.
LifeQ’s intention to harness the capital it has raised from this latest investment round to expand its capacity and its global reach will be adequately fulfilled through this investment by Nedbank.
