The archive · Health & Care · Strategic decision · 2015–2022
Reliance Health bets subscription insurance, not telemedicine, can fix Nigerian healthcare
Kangpe telemedicine stalled; Reliance Health pivoted to bundled insurance, clinics and drug delivery — 200,000 users and a $40M General Atlantic round later.
Reliance Health
What the business is
Nigerian digital healthcare provider offering subscription health insurance (Reliance HMO), telemedicine, drug delivery, and proprietary and partner clinics for individuals and businesses.
Starting capital：$40M Series B (Feb 2022) led by General Atlantic, bringing total funding to $48M across a $2M post-YC seed (2017) and $6M Series A (Jan 2020)
How it started
Femi Kuti, Opeyemi Olumekun and Matthew Mayaki launched telemedicine app Kangpe in 2015 with a 'doctor in your pocket' idea, after going through Y Combinator. A year in they saw the gap: a chat that ended with a recommendation for an x-ray, surgery or specialist left patients with nowhere to continue the journey. They made a soft pivot to Reliance Health — an integrated provider that could manage care end to end through subscriptions.
What happened
Reliance Health sells Reliance HMO plans from ₦3,500 (~$7) to ₦148,500 (~$297) on monthly, quarterly or yearly terms, bundled with telemedicine, drug delivery and its own two Lagos clinics, plus employer plans. By February 2022 it served 200,000+ individuals and 600 business customers including Beiersdorf's Nivea, Jumia and PwC, claiming 3.5x average year-over-year revenue growth since 2016. It raised a $2M seed after Y Combinator in 2017 and a $6M Series A in January 2020, then closed a $40M Series B led by General Atlantic — the firm's first technology investment in Africa and the largest round in African healthtech at the time — with Partech, Picus Capital, Tencent Exploration, Asia Africa Investment and Consulting, P1 Ventures, Laerdal Million Lives Fund and M3 joining, taking total funding to $48M.
How it ended up
Still scaling: the 2022 round funded two more clinics in Abuja and Port Harcourt, an Egypt entry and diaspora-facing products; no later valuation or exit has been disclosed.
Background
Reliance Health is a Nigerian digital healthcare provider founded by Femi Kuti, Opeyemi Olumekun and Matthew Mayaki. The three launched telemedicine app Kangpe in 2015 with a 'doctor in your pocket' pitch, but a year in they realized a chat that ended with a referral to an x-ray, surgery or specialist left patients stranded — so they pivoted to Reliance Health, an integrated provider that manages the entire care journey through subscriptions.
The model bundles Reliance HMO insurance plans ranging from ₦3,500 (~$7) to ₦148,500 (~$297), telemedicine, drug delivery, proprietary clinics in Lagos and a network of partner hospitals, diagnostics and pharmacies. By February 2022 the company served 200,000+ individuals and 600 business customers including Nivea, Jumia and PwC, and claimed 3.5x average year-over-year revenue growth since 2016.
After a $2M post-YC seed in 2017 and a $6M Series A in January 2020, Reliance Health closed a $40M Series B in February 2022 led by General Atlantic — the firm's first technology investment in Africa and the largest round in African healthtech at the time — with Partech, Picus Capital, Tencent Exploration, AAIC, P1 Ventures, Laerdal Million Lives Fund and M3 participating, bringing total funding to $48M.
What has to be true
- Telemedicine alone could not complete a care journey in Nigeria; insurance plus clinics plus delivery closed the loop and made subscriptions sticky.
- A single-fee model simplified the buyer decision for individuals and employers, converting healthcare into a monthly subscription rather than an emergency expense.
- Business plans for companies like Nivea, Jumia and PwC gave Reliance a high-retention anchor customer base.
- The scale of the underserved Nigerian market and proven revenue growth made Reliance General Atlantic's first African technology bet — the largest healthtech round on the continent at the time.
What can be applied
A feature can't fix a broken system: Reliance won by making telemedicine one layer of an integrated subscription with insurance, clinics and delivery — monetizing the whole care journey.
Aftermath
As of February 2022, Reliance Health operates an integrated subscription healthcare platform in Nigeria with 200,000+ individuals and 600 companies served, two proprietary Lagos clinics, telemedicine, drug delivery and Reliance HMO plans from about $7 to $297. Its $40M Series B, led by General Atlantic and totaling $48M in funding, was earmarked for two additional clinics in Abuja and Port Harcourt, an Egypt launch planned for mid-2022, diaspora-focused products and hiring. No later valuation, revenue or exit figures have been disclosed.
Sources
- Nigerian healthtech startup Reliance Health raises $40M led by General Atlantic
- Nigeria's Reliance Health raises $40m Series B funding round
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