Kenyan Health Tech Startup Ilara Health Secures $4.2 Million in Funding to Expand Clinic Support Services

Ilara Health, a Kenyan-based health tech company that equips healthcare professionals to achieve the best patient, clinical, and economic outcomes, has announced the raise of $4.2 million in a pre-series A fund.

The funding round was led by DOB Equity, with follow-on equity investment from AAIC INVESTMENT, Angaza Capital, Black Pearl Investments, Perivoli Innovations, and debt investment from Alphamundi and Kiva Capital.

Ilara Health will use the latest capital injection to scale its tech-enabled primary care model across Kenya before expanding to other regions. With this latest funding, the company’s total investment to date reaches $11.7M, encompassing various funding rounds, such as a $3.75M seed round in 2020, along with multiple grants, including two grants totaling $1.6M from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Speaking on the round, CEO and Co-founder of Ilara Health Emilian Popa says,

 “Ilara Health came about by one common goal; to improve the quality of healthcare for Africans. We passionately believe healthcare should be affordable and accessible to all and I’m therefore proud of the measurable impact we have achieved in such a short space of time. 

“There’s still so much more to be done, which is why we are thrilled to be joined by prominent global investors who share our core vision for Kenya and ultimately all of Africa. This funds raised will build on our continued growth and we look forward to driving standardized quality healthcare on the continent.”

Founded in 2019 by Emilian Popa, Maximilian Mancini, and Sameer Afzal Farooqi, Ilara Health helps primary care clinics across Africa deliver better healthcare.

The company began by addressing the gap in diagnostics impacting primary healthcare centers in the region due to significant disparities in availability and quality testing.

Ilara Health’s initial model offered revenue-generating diagnostic assets, which enabled clinics to instantly scale their businesses, whilst also providing flexible repayment plans, and also the training required to test patients.

The company has since expanded to digitizing the entire end-to-end operations, leveraging data to enhance its infrastructural business model. This includes helping clinics electronically manage their patient base and becoming their one-stop shop for diagnostic tools, consumables, and pharmaceuticals.

Ilara Health partners and collaborates with several great companies which include Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Chandaria Capital, Kiva, Google for startups, IBM, and Villgro Africa, amongst others. 

In the company’s next phase of growth, it plans to double down on reaching patients through the B2B health and occupational service, through which they will partner with employers to give employees access to various outpatient services at partner clinics.