MDaaS raises $3M to improve healthcare access and expand network across Nigeria

MDaaS Global, a Nigerian health tech company that operates a network of tech-enabled diagnostic centers across the country, has secured $3 million in pre-Series A funding.

The round was led by Aruwa Capital and Newton Partners, the latter of which was the lead investor in the health tech’s $2.3 million seed extension in 2021. MDaaS also received follow-on capital from Ventures Platform, bringing its total investment to $6.8 million.

According to its statement, MDaaS will use the investment to launch BeaconOS, the proprietary technology platform it launched last year. The seven-year-old health tech also plans to expand its healthcare network to cover all Nigerian states through a combination of company-owned and affiliate clinics.

Access to healthcare in Nigeria and across Africa remains a significant challenge. While some access exists, people tend to prioritize treating diseases rather than prevention. Consequently, life-threatening diseases, especially non-communicable ones, often go undetected until later stages. Improving access to diagnostics and preventive care, a domain where MDaaS has garnered recognition, is essential in tackling this healthcare challenge.

Since our previous coverage a few years ago, the startup has expanded its operations significantly, with a current network of 17 diagnostic centers across 10 states. Looking ahead, MDaaS plans to construct an additional 23 centers in the coming years. Founded in 2017 by CEO Oluwasoga Oni, Opeyemi Ologun, Genevieve Oni, and Joseph McCord, MDaaS offers a range of services at its diagnostic centers, including imaging such as digital x-ray and ultrasound, cardiac services like ECG and echo, and various lab services spanning chemistry analysis to immunoassay and hematology.

Patients access these facilities through the platform’s SentinelX app, which serves as a personalized care program allowing them to pay a one-time fee for yearly access to a doctor. Originally designed as a customer-centric product, MDaaS has adapted SentinelX to cater more to businesses.

“While SentinelX didn’t perform as well as a B2C product, it has been highly successful as a B2B product. We now focus on serving corporates and conducting annual screenings for their employees,” explained CEO Oni in an interview with TechCrunch. “We’ve also incorporated pre-employment screenings and government-mandated screenings, which have become a significant source of revenue alongside individual customers who visit our hospitals for screenings.”

BeaconOS and an integrated care network are pivotal to MDaaS’s operations and growth in Nigeria.

As the operating system for MDaaS’ diagnostic facilities, BeaconOS provides the company with visibility into the day-to-day operations of its centers, facilitating easier management of patient visits and clinical results for its teams. On the other hand, MDaaS’ care network involves collaboration with over 1,300 referring clinicians across more than 1,000 organizations, including hospitals, pharmacies, health tech startups, corporate partners and 34 HMOs.

Since its inception, MDaaS has provided care to over 275,000 patients, leveraging its integrated care network and BeaconOS capabilities. In the past year alone, the health tech served 108,724 patients, with women constituting 60.8% of the total. Additionally, MDaaS conducted over 240,000 diagnostic tests, with chest x-rays, urinalysis and full blood count ranking among the top three procedures performed.

“We tend to screen a lot of people that work with corporates and what we see is that there’s really high levels of hypertension in the country,” said Oni, highlighting some of the most common diagnosis on the platform. “We just see that many workers battle with lifestyle and non-infectious diseases like cancer, hypertension, diabetes. The roots of those type of things like that is actually rising, we can see that in our data points and we help them get the care they need.”

To ease the communication between its diagnostic centers and clients, MDaaS rolled out Olewerk to help optimize diagnostic workflows and Beam to assist partners in managing occupational health for their teams. With the new investment, MDaaS intends to develop new applications on the BeaconOS platform, including an affiliate clinic portal for real-time patient referrals and results management, and integrate with HMOs to streamline authorization processes and develop a patient-facing app for appointment booking, result access and health insurance management.

“We are thrilled to partner with MDaaS Global on their mission to revolutionize healthcare delivery in Africa. MDaaS’ track record of consistent and impressive growth, as well as their dedication to bringing high-quality diagnostics to high-need patients, resonated deeply with us,” said Adesuwa Okunbo Rhodes, founder and managing partner at Aruwa Capital of the investment.

“As a gender-lens investor, we are especially excited to support a company that is driving change for women across Nigeria — over 60% of BeaconHealth patients are women, predominantly of reproductive age — and MDaaS shares our commitment to building gender-diverse teams.”