Nigerian health tech start-up Helium Health has raised US$10-million from a Series A funding round.

Nigerian health tech start-up Helium Health has raised US$10-million from a Series A funding round, which will be used to drive the company's expansion plans in Africa.

In a statement, Helium Health said the investment would enable it to grow its customer base in Nigeria, Ghana, and Liberia; in addition to supporting expansion into new markets in North Africa, East Africa, and Francophone West Africa in 2020.

Global Ventures and Asia Africa Investment & Consulting (AAIC) co-led the investment round with participation from Tencent, Ohara Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd, HOF Capital, Y Combinator, VentureSouq, Chrysalis Capital, Kairos Angels and Flying Doctors Healthcare Investment Company.

Nobuhiko Ichimiya, co-lead Investor at AAIC said: “We are greatly honored to be part of this journey with Helium Health. From our first meeting with the management team, we saw that the company had an outstanding track record and huge potential for digitising the healthcare sector in Africa.”

Noor Sweid, General Partner with Global Ventures added that Helium Health has the opportunity to solve large problems through its software and help accelerate healthcare accessibility.

“We are excited to partner with Helium Health as the need for healthcare data and inclusion in emerging markets is exacerbated by the pandemic,” said Sweid.

Helium Health’s flagship offering is its Electronic Medical Records/Hospital Management Information System (EMR/HMIS) which the company said is widely used in West Africa.

The company added it is expanding its tech product suite to help boost operational efficiency, improve revenue generation, expand health financing, monitor public health and improve health outcomes.

Adegoke Olubusi, Co-founder and CEO, Helium Health, said: “We started out with taking hospitals digital but our vision has always been bigger. We’re building the technology infrastructure to connect a fragmented healthcare sector and power the delivery of quality, affordable, comprehensive care across the continent. The devastating impact of the pandemic is a humbling reminder of how critical responsive and agile health systems are to our collective well-being. Only data and technology can produce the required responsiveness and agility to tackle health challenges of this magnitude. It has never been more imperative for Africa to build a modern and digitised healthcare system.”