Ilara Health, a health tech startup based in Kenya has raised a further $4.2 million pre-Series A debt+equity funding round.

The startup helps small clinics in Africa provide quality medical services to patients by enabling them to acquire different kinds of pharmaceutical products, medical & diagnostic equipment and soon by providing credit financing to the clinics to help with the day to day running of operations.

The startup has so far managed to raise $11.7 million in total funding. Their just closed equity round was led by DOB Equity, Philips Foundation and other existing investors such as AAIC Investment, Angaza Capital, Black Pearl Investments and Perivoli Innovations. The Debt investment was by Alphamundi, Kiva Capital and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Ilara health plans to use the investment to grow its operations in Kenya and to enable it launch its other lined up services such as lending/credit to its partner clinics and a B2B service in partnership with employers in Kenya to give their employees access to various medical outpatient services at its partner clinics, a model that’s somewhat similar to what some Insurance companies already provide.

Founded in 2018 by Emilian Popa (CEO), Maximilian Mancini (Co-CEO) and Sameer Afzal Farooqi (COO), Ilara Health started by providing unavailable diagnostics equipment to small clinics in Kenya that are frequently visited by patients due to their close proximity to residential areas. The startup provided the equipment bundled with their software platform at a fee. The clinics/doctors would pay a deposit to use the equipment and there after pay off the remaining cost in installments determined by usage. The equipment helped these clinics improve the quality of services that they provide to patients.

The startup currently also has a SaaS based product for clinics that is paid for on a monthly basis. The software helps the clinics move from using paper to digital for both patient and business records. It is charged at KES.1000 per month.

The startup which serves 3,000 clinics across the East African country now aims to reach patients directly with their new provider model via employer partnerships and take on NHIF which is run by the Kenyan government and offers a similar service albeit poorly, unfortunately. This could be where Ilara Health wins, by covering and supporting what NHIF doesn’t in outpatient health services, which is a lot.