Helium Health - Afrikan Heroes

African Healthtech Helium Health Raises $30 Million in Series B Funding to Drive Growth and Healthcare Financing Solutions

June 5, 2023

Helium Health, an African startup that offers software-as-a-service tools, financing, and insights for healthcare providers and public health organizations, has successfully raised $30 million in Series B funding. This funding comes three years after the company secured a $10 million Series A round and 18 months following a unique Africa-GCC deal involving Meddy, a UAE-based healthcare provider-patient interaction platform.

The Series B round saw participation from new investors, including notable figures such as Anne Wojcicki, the co-founder and CEO of 23andMe, as well as venture capital firms like Capria Ventures, Angaza Capital, and Flatworld Partners. Additionally, existing investors like Global Ventures, Tencent, Ohara Pharmaceuticals, LCY Group, WTI, and AAIC also participated in this round.

The primary intendment of this investment is to drive growth in Helium Health’s software tools, financing solutions, and verticals in the healthcare sector. A particular focus will be placed on HeliumCredit, the fintech offering of the startup. Helium Health plans to expand the reach of HeliumCredit and increase its lending portfolio to 1,000 healthcare facilities by 2024, in partnership with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC). This move aims to address the significant healthcare financing deficit in Africa, where many healthcare facilities struggle to access external funding sources.

Reasons for the Investment

Several major reasons contributed to the investors’ decision to invest in Helium Health. Firstly, the African healthcare sector faces a severe financing deficit of $66 billion annually, with a decline in healthcare funding disbursed by African governments over the past 15 years. This funding gap, coupled with the lack of access to external sources of funding for private health facilities, creates a pressing need for healthcare financing solutions.

Helium Health recognized this challenge and developed HeliumCredit, a digital finance product that leverages its end-to-end software solutions to provide healthcare facilities with a digital financing solution. By offering financing based on billing and operational insights obtained from their software, along with data from credit bureaus and traditional systems, Helium Health addresses the creditworthiness assessment needs of healthcare facilities, enabling them to access the capital they require.

Furthermore, Helium Health’s expansion of its software tools, such as HeliumOS, which digitizes electronic medical records (EMR) and hospital management solutions, has gained significant traction. The demand for digital solutions in the healthcare sector is increasing, as facilities recognize the benefits of digitization in accessing financing opportunities and improving overall operational efficiency.

A Look at Helium Health

Helium Health was founded in Lagos, Africa, and has quickly become a leading startup in the healthcare technology industry. The company’s co-founders are Adegoke Olubusi, Dimeji Sofowora, and Tito Ovia. Helium Health primarily operates in Africa, with its primary markets being Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Liberia, Kenya, and Uganda. It has also expanded its reach to Qatar and the UAE in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region.

The startup focuses on providing software-as-a-service tools, financing solutions, and insights for healthcare providers and public health organizations. Its flagship products include HeliumOS, which digitizes electronic medical records and hospital management solutions, and HeliumCredit, a digital finance product that offers financing to healthcare facilities based on their creditworthiness.

With over 10,000 health workers across 1,000 facilities using their platform, Helium Health has become the widest-reaching electronic medical records (EMR) platform in West Africa. The company aims to bridge the gap between fragmented public health programs by integrating health information systems and collaborating with global health communities.

Helium Health has also received grant funding from renowned organizations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and MSD for Mothers, enabling the execution of projects aligned with their maternal health program strategies. Additionally, the company has attracted equity financing from AXA IM Alts, a subsidiary of AXA Group, a prominent global insurance group. AXA IM Alts, known for its impact strategies aimed at improving global financial inclusion and connectivity, recognized the value of Helium Health’s healthcare financing product and its strategic alignment with AXA’s position as a leading health insurance provider in the markets where Helium Health operates. This investment reaffirms the company’s commitment to providing digital solutions that enhance the quality and efficacy of healthcare services in resource-constrained environments, while also equipping health sector enterprises with affordable financial services.

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert.
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard

Nigeria’s Helium Health Expands into Middle East

November 14, 2021

With its recent acquisition of Meddy operations in Qatar, the Nigerian e-health startup Helium Health has commenced its expansion dream outside Africa for the first time and into the Middle East region. Helium Health was founded in 2016 to make hospitals and clinics instantly digital with its flagship Electronic Medical Records/Hospital Management Information System (EMR/HMIS) product, the most widely used such solution in West Africa.

The startup closed a US$10 million Series A funding round in May 2020 to expand its African footprint, duly expanding into Kenya earlier this year, and it has now made its first steps outside of the continent with the acquisition of Meddy, the GCC-based doctor booking platform. The deal consolidates Helium’s infrastructure innovation with Meddy’s regional and local network and business acumen.

Under the terms of the deal, Haris Aghadi, Meddy’s chief executive officer (CEO), will join the Helium Health leadership team.“Our business model has primarily been robust organic growth, but we always remain open to strategic acquisition opportunities,” said Adegoke Olubusi, CEO of Helium Health.“We will be leading the health-tech revolution in MEA.

In Qatar, UAE and Saudi Arabia, a great market opportunity exists to work with care providers to improve patient interaction, make healthcare data more interoperable, and improve revenue cycle management. I am excited to welcome Haris and his team to the Helium Health family and look forward to many years of fruitful collaboration.”

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

Nigeria’s Helium Health Goes To The Middle East, Acquires Qatar’s Meddy

November 11, 2021

Helium Health, a Nigerian health IT startup, has acquired Meddy, a Qatar- and UAE-based doctor booking platform, for an unknown sum.
The purchase, according to Helium Health CEO Adegoke Olubusi, is unique in that it brings together two regions that rarely collide in technology: Africa and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

“You don’t have a lot of people who can provide a suite like ours in the GCC. If they do, they’re doing it at a price point that’s so high that they’ve already priced out the market in that sense,” Olubusi said

“But we can provide a full suite where you can do your appointments booking, marketing solution, EMR, hospital management information system, and have everything in a one-stop shop. It saves you a lot of stress in the process from trying to consolidate many different systems.”
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As part of the acquisition, Meddy’s CEO Haris Aghadi and COO Abed Alkarim Khattab will join Helium’s leadership team. They’ll “play critical roles in Helium’s GCC strategy and operations,” according to the company.

Helium Health’s purchase of Meddy is a significant expansion move. Olubisi, Dimeji Sofowora, and Tito Ovia launched the company in 2016, and it is well-known in Africa for its core electronic medical records (EMR) and hospital administration solutions. However, it has now expanded its platform to include HeliumPay, a billing and payments solution; HeliumCredit, a collateral-free lending product; HeliumDoc, a patient-provider and revenue cycle management tool; and data analytics services.

Helium Health has contracted over 500 healthcare facilities in six African countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Liberia, Kenya, and Uganda. More than 7,000 medical experts from these facilities currently treat over 300,000 patients each month.

An enterprise client typically requires a variety of services on a single platform, ranging from electronic medical records and management information systems to revenue cycle management, aggregated analytics, and telemedicine.

Most GCC systems, on the other hand, have more vertical than horizontal use cases. Vezeeta and Okadoc, for example, allow users to schedule appointments, access teleconsultation services, and place prescription orders; Bayzat provides an online platform for HR administration, payroll management, and health insurance; and Clinicy operates a digital healthcare management system. As a result, enterprise clients will need to stack these different products on top of one another in order to have a holistic EMR experience.

Helium Health, situated in San Francisco, has a wide range of B2B options, but it falls short in several other areas, particularly in telemedicine and appointment scheduling, which are more consumer-facing services. The corporation might have developed up these services on its own, but due to its expansion strategy, acquiring Meddy was a preferable alternative. Meddy offers marketing solutions for hospitals to boost their online presence and attract new patients, in addition to providing a doctor booking platform and telemedicine software to handle bookings and patient ratings.

Meddy now serves over 150 private clients in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. With only $1.8 million in venture capital backing, the company has facilitated over 200,000 medical appointments while generating over $130 million in billings for healthcare providers.
As the two companies merge, Olubusi believes the next step would be to figure out how to better serve the GCC market with its entire EMR solutions while also launching telemedicine and doctor scheduling services for its African clientele.

“Over the next few months, a lot of what we’re doing is being able to better roll out these consolidated product suites in our markets and serve them more,” he said. “I mean, we want to double, triple the growth of our client base over the next two to three years and extend our reach even further to make sure that Helium Health is the top health tech provider in the GCC region just as it is in Africa.”

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Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning write

With Its New Funding, Nigerian Startup Helium Health Wants To Invade The Moroccan Market

May 10, 2020

Helium Health, the young Nigerian startup, which provides technological solutions for the health sector in West Africa, is accelerating its development and wants to attack the Moroccan market this year.

Also, the startup intends to develop its solutions for digitizing hospital infrastructures, optimize its levers of negotiations, while seeking to reach new segments in its natural market in Nigeria, and also in Ghana and Liberia. It goes without saying that Helium Health has a bright future ahead of it, especially since the coronavirus pandemic has shown the deficiencies of the continent’s health system and that the digitalisation of health infrastructures will now be erected by governments as a categorical imperative after the crisis. sanitary.

A Look At What Startup Helium Health Does

Based in Lagos and founded in 2014 by three Nigerians, Goke Olubisi, Tito Ovia and Dimeji Sofowora, Helium Health has developed telemedicine tools as part of the current health crisis that facilitate access to information and test results for patients with covid-19.

“Healthcare can be a form of revenue to a country if proper investment is made in preserving the quality of data. With accurate data, the right kind of budget can be made, we get to do research and a lot more,’’ said co-founder Tito Ovia.

“Only 30% of hospital visits across Africa are recorded so it’s a massive need in the market,” she said.

Uplifting and Inspiring African Startups - Afrikan Heroes — *AfrikanHeroes.com is the best website to find the latest news, and information about startups in Africa*

Helium Health was previously alumni of the Google LaunchPad programme and the prestigious YCombinator accelerator programme. The startup says it now covers more than 300 health facilities across Nigeria, and has over 5,000 medical professionals in its database. It also says it has recorded over 165,000 encounters with patients.

“Since 2016, Helium Health has taken hospitals, clinics and other health facilities digital almost instantly using our flagship Electronic Medical Records/Hospital Management Information System (EMR/HMIS) product. Now, our intuitive and versatile suite of technologies is enabling Providers utilize telemedicine and receive additional financing, Payers validate beneficiaries and process claims quicker, Patients take control of their care, and other Partners receive unprecedented epidemiological insights and real-world evidence, all resulting in significantly better quality of care,’’ the startup noted on its website.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer

Nigerian Healthtech Startup Helium Health Raises $10 Million From Dubai- based VC

May 2, 2020

In the heat of the raging coronavirus pandemic, Nigeria health startup Helium Health, which uses technology to strengthen the services and solutions offered by hospitals in West Africa, has secured $10 million investment from the Dubai-based Global Ventures and the Japanese VC Asia Africa Investment and Consulting. The investment is coming as investors are scouring deeply into startup ecosystems for health-related startups amid the coronavirus outbreak.

“Now is the time for the healthcare system to embrace innovative, technology-driven solutions of which our Electronic Medical Records solution is one, to increase positive healthcare outcomes.’’ Helium Health tweeted.

Here Is All You Need To Know

This is the first equity investment in the health technology sector Global Ventures, the Dubai-based VC would be making in emerging markets. The venture capitalist partnered with Asia Africa Investment and Consulting.
Also participating in this round is previous investor, China’s Tencent according to Noor Sweid, general partner and founder at Global Ventures said.
Their joint contribution will help the startup finance the development of its solutions and tools for healthcare professionals.
The startup has an impressive funding history. In 2017, it raised $50,000 from Google. It received another $120,000 as a cohort of the YCombinator programme, and according to Forbes, it also raised $2 million in funding from investors including Tencent, WTI, Venturesouq & Greenhouse Capital.

*Prior to the coronavirus, investment in Africa’s healthcare startups has been low compared to other sectors*

Why The Investors Invested

This investment is remarkable because it shows VCs are currently, desperately scouting for healthcare startups. This investment in Helium Health will be Global Ventures’ first investment in any health technology firm. Previously, the Dubai-based firm has 14 different investments in companies including fintech startups.

“What we are passionate about now is health technology. It will be for the next five years, what fintech has been for the past five years, “said Noor Sweid, partner of Global Ventures, commenting on the investment made by the firm

Other investors are also eyeing the healthcare sector.

The venture capital arm of Abu Dhabi state investor Mubadala plans to launch a healthcare fund next year to tap into increased demand for investment in life sciences and digital health technology following the coronavirus outbreak.

A Look At What Startup Helium Health Does

Based in Lagos and founded in 2014 by three Nigerians, Goke Olubisi, Tito Ovia and Dimeji Sofowora, Helium Health has developed telemedicine tools as part of the current health crisis that facilitate access to information and test results for patients with covid-19.

“Healthcare can be a form of revenue to a country if proper investment is made in preserving the quality of data. With accurate data, the right kind of budget can be made, we get to do research and a lot more,’’ said co-founder Tito Ovia.

“Only 30% of hospital visits across Africa are recorded so it’s a massive need in the market,” she said.

Helium Health was previously alumni of the Google LaunchPad programme and the prestigious YCombinator accelerator programme. The startup says it now covers more than 300 health facilities across Nigeria, and has over 5,000 medical professionals in its database. It also says it has recorded over 165,000 encounters with patients.

“Since 2016, Helium Health has taken hospitals, clinics and other health facilities digital almost instantly using our flagship Electronic Medical Records/Hospital Management Information System (EMR/HMIS) product. Now, our intuitive and versatile suite of technologies is enabling Providers utilize telemedicine and receive additional financing, Payers validate beneficiaries and process claims quicker, Patients take control of their care, and other Partners receive unprecedented epidemiological insights and real-world evidence, all resulting in significantly better quality of care,’’ the startup noted on its website.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer