Reliance Health, a Nigerian e-health business, has closed a $40 million Series B fundraising round to help it grow into emerging countries throughout the world and extend its product line.
Femi Kuti, Opeyemi Olumekun, and Matthew Mayaki founded Reliance Health in 2015 as a telemedicine-focused firm called Kangpe, which eventually evolved into a single-fee healthcare provider to better serve patients’ complex and growing demands.
Reliance has affected over 200,000 lives and 600 businesses with an integrated strategy that includes inexpensive health insurance, telemedicine, and a mix of partner and own healthcare facilities.
Its US $40 million Series B, led by Partech, Picus Capital, Tencent Exploration, Asia Africa Investment and Consulting (AAIC), P1 Ventures, Laerdal Million Lives Fund, M3, Inc, and Arvantis Social Foundation, is a significant global growth equity investor making its first technology investment in Africa. The business now has a total of US $48 million in secured capital.
Reliance Health’s ambitions to extend its platform in emerging areas throughout the world will be accelerated by the investment, which will include new products that complement current proprietary technologies, facilities, and collaborations. Reliance would also use the capital to employ more high performers.
“Healthcare in emerging markets is often overlooked by private initiatives because it’s an extremely complex challenge to solve. At Reliance Health, by leveraging new innovations to break the constraints of legacy solutions, we believe there is an opportunity to solve some of these tough problems and even for aspects of healthcare in emerging markets to leapfrog to other parts of the world. We are excited to work with our investors towards bringing affordability and accessibility in healthcare to underserved markets, ultimately saving lives around the world,” said Femi Kuti, Reliance Health CEO and co-founder.
“General Atlantic is thrilled to announce our first technology investment in Africa in Reliance Health, backing a team focused on improving healthcare quality for millions of patients in Nigeria and abroad,” said Chris Caulkin, head of EMEA technology and managing director at General Atlantic.
“We have been consistently impressed by Femi and Ope, who exemplify the entrepreneurialism and innovation we see across the African continent. We look forward to sharing our experience as a leading global growth equity investor in support of Reliance Health’s exciting and important mission.”
