INVESTMENT NEWS
KENYA’S AFYA REKOD RAISES $2M SEED FUNDING TO DIGITISE HEALTH RECORD
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In Africa, health records and information are still recorded using pen and paper and locked away in files and storage rooms. In most cases, patients can only access their personal files during hospital visits and don’t have the power to walk away with their files in hand. This is problematic as it blindsides external doctors from accessing patients’ records for medical attention in emergency cases.
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fya Rekod, a Kenyan healthtech startup solving this problem by creating a platform that digitally collects and stores people’s health records, has closed a $2 million seed funding to scale its product and expand into new African markets.
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SYNAPSE | 1ST QUARTER 2022
John Kamara, founder and CEO at Afya Rekod
The funding was led by a US-based seedstage venture capital Mac Venture Capital. Next Chymia, an Asian private firm that focuses on blockchain based companies, also participated in the round. Founded in 2019 by John Kamara, Afya Rekod is a health platform, built on the blockchain technology, on a mission to return full ownership of health records to patients. Before founding Afya Rekod, Kamara, a business leader and a serial entrepreneur, had worked and led teams across different continents and industries like gaming, trading, telecommunications, and NGO. He had also worked at Google as a strategy manager and co-founded Adanian Labs, a
pan-African venture building studio. But in 2019, tragedy struck – Kamara’s friend died in one of the best hospitals in Lagos, Nigeria. His friend’s loved ones and family accused the hospital and its doctos of negligence and incompetence. For Kamara, blaming didn’t change terrible situations; however, he wanted to know why his friend—who went to work by himself in the morning—was rushed to the hospital alive and died before 6 p.m. He asked questions and pored over available health and data points. “Obviously, my friend was diabetic. But that wasn’t enough to kill him. He was rushed to the hospital with a seizure, and the doctors treated exactly what they saw.
