Kenya’s leading health tech startup, Ilara Health has raised $3.75-million in a Series A funding round for the expansion of its operations across the country and other African countries. The funding was led by TLcom Capital with contributions from DOB Equity, Global Ventures, and Chandaria Capital. The funding will be used to expand the startup’s diagnostic reach across Africa and the development of its innovative integrated patient health management platform. According to the CEO Emilian Popa, funding is critical for the startup’s planned expansion efforts which are aimed at providing inclusive healthcare to everyone.
“This funding round allows us to significantly grow our on-the-ground presence and invest resources into our technology capabilities. In just one year of operation, we have seen the incredible impact our Ilara Health platform has had in delivering improved services across maternal, metabolic, cardiovascular, and infectious disease care.”
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The health tech startup was founded in 2018 with the objective of providing essential, affordable, and life-saving diagnostics to African consumers. By providing existing primary health care facilities in rural and urban areas of Kenya with next-generation point of care diagnostic tools, the startup contributes to providing critical healthcare and bridging a gap in diagnostic health care technology. Diagnostics are critical to clinical decision making, determining how to treat a patient, and deciphering what they may be suffering from. In many peri-urban and rural areas across Africa, diagnostic services are non-existent. In many cases, patients are ill-diagnosed and not treated properly due to the lack of laboratory-based diagnostic services and tools.
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The health tech startup provides access to life-saving tests and screenings that assist local medical providers to improve the quality of their healthcare service. Using technological advancements, Ilara Health is able to generate data from the diagnostics tests to create a ‘closed-loop patient management system’ and provide analytical insight into dominant local diseases across underserved communities. Popa adds that the funding will be used in alignment with the startup’s overall objective of providing much-needed medical diagnostics to underserved communities. “We view this as only the beginning, widening our disease indication coverage and creating end-to-end value throughout the entire care delivery process. In the coming months, we will continue working to reach patients who currently struggle to access basic lifesaving tests and on developing data-driven insights for better quality care across the continent.”
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The healthtech startup has reportedly partnered with over 200 clinical facilities in outlying areas of Nairobi and Kisumu and plans to expand across wider Kenya and a new East African market within the next 12 months.
Kelechi Deca
Kelechi Deca has over two decades of media experience, he has traveled to over 77 countries reporting on multilateral development institutions, international business, trade, travels, culture, and diplomacy. He is also a petrol head with in-depth knowledge of automobiles and the auto industry