[UPDATE on May 26, 2021, 18:25 WAT.] The number of subscribers have been updated to include those on waitlist. Also, monthly recurring revenue(MRR) was inaccurate. The article has been updated to reflect these changes.
Founded in June 2020, Nigerian healthtech startup, CribMD has closed a $2.6 million seed round led by US-based VC, Sputnik ATX; Swedish accelerator, Norrsken; and mass media company, The Guardian Nigeria. This fund brings the startup’s total investments to $2.85 million.
At launch, the founders — Ifeanyi Ossai (CEO), Ngiri Michael (CTO), and Lorna Mae Johnson (CFO) — bootstrapped a $250k pre-seed round to get the business running. In February 2021, it raised an initial investment of $100k for this round from Sputnik ATX — a US accelerator.
Ossai told Techpoint Africa that they exceeded their $2 million target for this round because of investors’ interest.
“Our investors recognise the value of what we’re doing and that we’re very profitable at it. We had to turn down several investments even from our current investors. Our $2 million was oversubscribed,” he says.
He believes this was possible because the startup has a strong team and a viable product that investors know is worth backing.
With this fundraise, the startup wants to expand its current team of 36 professionals and grow its network of partners. The startup has notable customers like The Guardian Nigeria — one of the investors in this round — Bora Communications, IHS Towers, Energy Batteries Nigeria limited, and NeoTech.
“We’ve raised it to specifically do team expansion, product enhancement, and sales and marketing,” Ossai explains.
The business intends to focus more on growing its corporate subscribers in Nigeria and other African countries and working towards servicing the B2B and B2C markets equally.
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CribMD has subscription packages for all classes of people, with its services costing between $7 and $50 monthly.
Apart from consultancy, diagnosis, prescriptions, and lab tests, the startup is currently experimenting with different service delivery features to provide easy-to-use services.
Before evolving to become CribMD, the business — which started as WeCare — set out to build 300 clinics strategically located across sub-Saharan Africa to solve the region's inadequate healthcare problem.
It pivoted from this after three years when the founders realised that physical clinics couldn’t sufficiently meet the daily healthcare demands of the population. WeCare is still running in Delta State, Nigeria. However, there won’t be any more additions to the four it has in the state.
Now a digital healthcare solution, CribMD is providing subscription-based on-demand healthcare services for Africans. With a monthly subscription, clients can communicate with a doctor, get house calls, and schedule telemedicine sessions or hospital visits via an app or website. They also have access to health insurance.
After 10 months of operation, Ossai claims CribMD is already profitable and is working towards making $24 million in annual recurring revenue within the next 12 months. Meanwhile, the platform is currently servicing 2,800 patients -- with over 50,000 on waitlist -- and making $75,000 in monthly recurring revenue (MRR).
With the COVID-19 outbreak came an increasing need for telemedicine, and African tech startups are, perhaps, attracting investment for this reason. According to Techpoint Africa’s Nigerian Startup Funding Report 2020, the healthtech sector raised $32.5 million across seven deals, a 404% increase from 2019’s figures.
How Nigerian-founded CribMD evolved to become a telemedicine healthtech startup
Featured Image credits: National Cancer Institute on Unsplash
