Nigeria’s Intron Health raised $1.6 M Pre-seed funding to advance its research
In a pre-seed funding round, Nigerian startup Intron Health, which offers clinical speech recognition for more than 200 accents spoken in developing nations, beginning in Africa, raised US $1.6 million to advance its research and broaden its reach.
Intron Health created Africa’s first clinical speech recognition platform, which was introduced in 2020 by Tobi Olatunji and Olakunle Asekun. It has a 92% accuracy rate when it comes to medical terminology with strong accents.
The platform speeds up the process of completing documentation for doctors in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa, and, most recently, Uganda by seven times. This accelerates the adoption of Electronic Health Records (EHR) and lessens the administrative load.
Microtraction spearheaded Intron’s US $1.6 million pre-seed round, in which Plug and Play Ventures, Jaza Rift Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Africa Health Ventures, OpenseedVC, Pi Campus, Alumni Angel, and Baker Bridge Capital also participated. Angel investors from international corporations such as Google, CLEAR Global, NYU, and Optum also contributed to the investment.
With the help of this funding, Intron Health will increase distribution, bolster its cloud-native and on-premises capabilities, and intensify its research. In order to support product development and market expansion, the company will also bolster its team by hiring tech talent. This will help to drive continued progress and break down additional technological barriers.
“Having worked as a doctor in Nigeria, I have experienced first-hand the pain points with trying to deliver quality healthcare amidst increasing patient numbers. We are excited about the adoption and growth we’ve seen over the past year, which shows we are addressing a significant need and providing a well overdue solution to a critical problem in the global south,” said Olatunji.
“We are not only improving efficiency but also enhancing health outcomes and positively impacting hospital finances. With the backing of prominent global investors who bring deep knowledge and expertise, we are looking forward to our next phase of growth.”
Presently, Intron Health provides care to over 56,000 patients at over 30 public and private hospitals, including Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital (AKTH) in Kano, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Hospital (ABATH) in Lagos, Babcock Teaching Hospital in Ogun, and Meridian Health Group in Nairobi.
“We value companies and entrepreneurs who push boundaries with innovative solutions. Intron Health exemplifies this spirit. Tobi and Olakunle have effectively combined their domain expertise, unique insights, and proven execution skills to achieve impressive traction. We are excited to support Intron Health further and confident in their ability to deliver significant value to the healthcare sector and its stakeholders,” said Dayo Koleowo, partner at Microtraction.
