GMC coLABS, the gender lens investment portfolio of US based impact investor Gray Matters Capital (GMC), has invested into SonoCare, a Nigeria based health tech start-up providing services spanning the spectrum of women’s health such as on-demand mobile 3D/4D diagnostic imaging and cardiac monitoring among others.
This marks the Impact Investor’s Second Investment in a Health Tech Start-up in Africa after Ghana’s RedBird Health Tech.
SonoCare to use the funds to scale operations by developing a Mobile App and deploying more Mobile Units for catering to 200,000 pregnancies by 2020.
Speaking about the fund raise, Dr. Moses Owoicho Enokela, Managing Director, SonoCare said, “We are excited to partner with GMC coLABS as our first institutional investor, as we both share the vision and passion to positively impact the lives of women. With this investment, we will be able to scale our operations through our mobile app in addition to deploying more mobile units. This will push us to reach our first 200,000 pregnancies by 2020 and to profitability.”
With one in thirteen women in Nigeria dying during pregnancy and childbirth, and a vast majority of such deaths occurring in rural areas, GMC coLABS saw SonoCare’s mobile diagnostic medical imaging solution that leverages technology and innovation as a solution to the lack of affordable and easy to access diagnostic care services in Sub-Saharan Africa.
SonoCare has screened over 26,000 women from 17 rural communities and has detected over 15,000 high-risk pregnancies and has helped low-income, rural women save US$ 626,568 in costs that could have prevented them from seeking medical help.
Offering both fixed site and mobile solutions, SonoCare provides cost efficient programs scaled to the needs of hospitals, satellite clinics, health care providers like physicians and midwives, birthing centres, assisted living facilities as well as corporate offices using a combination of the most advanced imaging systems and highly trained, registered technologists as sonographers.
Founded in 2015, SonoCare has been a pioneer in mobile diagnostic imaging in Nigeria and the first to deploy a web/mobile resource for patient information transmission and inter-disciplinary collaboration. It currently operates its services in Port Harcourt (River State), Lafia (Nasarawa State) and Sagbama (Bayelsa State) and Otukpo (Benue State) in Nigeria.
“With its mobile diagnostic services, SonoCare detects pregnancy complications before they become threats to the lives of women, giving those in low resource areas a better chance for safer pregnancies and deliveries”, said Jennifer Soltis, Portfolio Manager – coLABS, Gray Matters Capital. “We are proud to support the work of Dr. Moses, a determined and resilient entrepreneur who has brought to market a solution to a problem that most lack the grit to attempt to solve at scale. We’ve been very impressed with what he’s accomplished with modest resources and can’t wait to see what the future holds for him”, she added.
SonoCare, recognized by Microsoft’s Winsiders4Good program, the Obama Foundation (Africa Leaders), the Tony Elumelu Foundation and a host of others, becomes the third GMC coLABS portfolio company in Africa for Gray Matters Capital after A.R.E.D in Rwanda (2017) and Ghana’s Redbird Health Tech (2018).
GMC coLABS continues to accept applications from innovative and scalable for-profit, early-stage companies that improve the lives of women and girls with their products and services. Launched in 2017, Gray Matters Capital (GMC) has committed $5 million over the next 3 years to help early-stage entrepreneurs with seed capital and strategic advisory support to scale their enterprises. The investment ticket size is up to $250,000 per enterprise.