Toyota Kenya’s parent company CFAO Group has increased its venture funding in the country with the recent financing of Tibu Health, a medical technology company which will use the new unspecified capital to find solutions to chronic illnesses.
Health54, the healthcare-dedicated venture capital arm of CFAO Group did not disclose the funding but said the investment is expected to help Tibu continue its growth strategy.
“Technology company delivering health services Tibu Health has closed an undisclosed Pre-Series A round led by Health54,” the CFAO said in a statement.
Tibu is an on-demand platform that connects people to healthcare workers in real time and deploys them to a location and time a patient chooses.
“We’re particularly excited to develop our chronic disease program and address the alarming rise in the incidence of chronic disease in Africa,” said Jason-Louis Carmichael, the chief executive officer of Tibu Health.
Venture capitalists are investing in local healthcare technology innovations to pilot products in East Africa.
Beneficiaries of various rounds of funding from VCs include Tibu Health, Zuri Health, Bena Care, Penda and Grace Health.
“Proceeds of this round will be used to make some strategic investments in our virtual care platform and add a few ultra-modern wellness hubs to make healthcare even easier for Nairobians,” said Mr Carmichael.
The company said the financing for the seed round was oversubscribed by 50 percent, implying that Tibu got more investment commitments than they're allowed to close on.
The e-health start-up has partnered with Boost VC, Blue Haven Initiative, and Ground Squirrel Ventures among others to scale operations.
“This partnership means we are building for the long term...in the coming months, there are a lot of changes coming to Tibu Health to focus on the scalability and sustainability of our company,” said Mr Carmichael.
This is the latest investment in Kenya’s technology sector by Toyota Kenya’s affiliates. Toyota Tsusho Corporation (TTC), which owns CFAO Group, announced in 2020 that it invested $7.6 million (Sh1 billion at current exchange rates) to acquire an undisclosed stake in the logistics digital platform Sendy.
Kenya’s technology start-up scene is attracting more institutional investors, mostly foreign venture capital firms as well as financiers such as the International Finance Corporation (IFC).
