The Amsterdam and Nairobi-based CarePay International was launched in Kenya in 2015 in partnership with mobile operator Safaricom.

It connects patients, healthcare providers and insurers on a single mobile platform, allowing them to communicate and make transactions in real-time using smart contracts.

More than four million users are currently on the platform, as well as 1,200 healthcare providers, and CarePay has now raised a Series A funding round to further expand its operations in Nigeria - where it is already active - and launch in Tanzania.

The €40-million round, which puts CarePay among the better-funded tech start-ups on the continent, involved a number of investors, including Dutch private equity fund IFHA-II and impact investor ELMA Investments. The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs is also a participant via the PharmAccess Group.

"The mobile phone allows you to reach everyone at almost no extra cost, this creates unprecedented opportunities for health insurance schemes," said Onno Schellekens, chief executive officer of CarePay International.

"Universal health coverage in Africa will only be possible if governments and their citizens can provide and access health services from both the public and private sectors through seamless and efficient mechanisms, CarePay brings that ambitious vision within the realm of possibility," said Tom McPartland, board member of ELMA Investments.

"The current health insurance model excludes huge parts of the African population as the administrative costs are too high, there is not enough data and outpatient costs cannot be controlled," said Max Coppoolse, IFHA-II's managing partner. "CarePay's mobile technology addresses all these elements and in addition offers cross-sale opportunities and other significant growth prospects for insurers."