Kola Aina, a partner at Ventures Platform, has announced that they recently invested in MDaaS Global. "I am excited to announce our $100,000 investment in MDaaS," he wrote.
According to Kola, they arrived at the decision partly because of the team. "At Ventures Platform, we believe bold entrepreneurs will solve some of Africa’s most important problems using technology," he wrote.
Adding that "in the past four months, we have only gotten more convinced that Soga, Genevieve, Joe, and Opeyemi will succeed".
Yet, beyond the team, they also looked at the type and scale of the problem they are addressing.
"Across the country, and indeed in much of Africa — especially in low-income areas, access to radiology, cardiology, and other diagnostic services is poor," he wrote.
The above, combined with the fact that most diagnostic centers are urban-centered seem to have convinced them to invest. "It is not uncommon to see people travel for hours to do basic tests," Kola pointed out.
"At the same time, according to WHO, non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and heart disease will cause 46% of all deaths in Africa by 2020, up from 25% today."
The MDaaS team which Kola and Ventures Platform got to meet early this year also exhibited rapid growth in the recent months.
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According to Kola, the startup's first center went live in Ibadan, Oyo State (Nigeria) only ten months ago. Yet, in that short period, they have managed to reach break-even in month five and also grow their revenue by 500% since January.
Founded in 2016 by Genevieve Barnard (CFO) and Oluwasoga Oni (CEO), MDaaS - Medical Devices as a Service - currently has operations only in Nigeria. Though hopeful to expand across the continent.
The startup is building a network of tech-enabled diagnostic and primary health care facilities for clinically underserved communities in Africa. Basically, they can rent or lease out medical equipment.
In June this year, MDaaS was accepted into the Techstars Impact Accelerator 2018 cohort alongside eight other startups.