MedTechX

Transforming Healthcare Delivery Across Africa

Africa's healthcare challenge is staggering in its scale and urgency. The continent carries 24% of the global disease burden but has only 3% of the world's healthcare workers and less than 1% of global health expenditure. Yet within this challenge lies an extraordinary opportunity: to build healthcare systems that leverage technology to deliver better outcomes at a fraction of the cost. This is the mission of Eruba Group's MedTechX vertical.

Historical Context: Healthcare in Africa

For much of the 20th century, African healthcare was defined by post-colonial infrastructure challenges, brain drain of medical professionals, and dependence on foreign aid. Hospital systems built during colonial eras were concentrated in capital cities, leaving rural populations — often 60-70% of a country's population — with minimal access to care.

The HIV/AIDS crisis of the 1990s and 2000s, which devastated Sub-Saharan Africa, paradoxically catalyzed significant healthcare infrastructure investment. The Global Fund, PEPFAR, and the Gates Foundation poured billions into the continent, building laboratory networks, supply chains, and community health worker programs that persist today. The Ebola outbreak of 2014-15 and COVID-19 pandemic further accelerated digital health adoption.

The first wave of African health tech startups emerged around 2015 — telemedicine platforms like mDoc, diagnostics companies like AIME, and pharmacy chains like mPharma. Eruba Group began investing in MedTech in 2020, recognizing that the intersection of technology and healthcare offered the highest-impact investment opportunity on the continent.

The Present: A Sector at an Inflection Point

Africa's digital health market is currently valued at approximately $7.5 billion and is projected to reach $30 billion by 2030. The COVID-19 pandemic was a massive accelerant: telemedicine usage increased by 400% in 2020 alone, and governments that had previously resisted digital health regulation rapidly adopted enabling frameworks.

Our portfolio company MediTrack Health is a prime example of what's possible. MediTrack's AI-powered diagnostic platform enables community health workers — equipped only with a smartphone — to screen for 15 different conditions including diabetes, hypertension, malaria, and tuberculosis. Since our initial investment, MediTrack has expanded to 4 countries, screened over 500,000 patients, and achieved diagnostic accuracy comparable to physician-led assessments in 89% of cases.

The Need: Africa's Healthcare Gap

The statistics are sobering:

• Doctor Shortage: Sub-Saharan Africa has 0.2 physicians per 1,000 people, compared to 2.6 in the global average. Some countries, like Malawi, have fewer than 500 doctors for 20 million people.
• Maternal Mortality: Africa accounts for 66% of global maternal deaths. Many of these are preventable with basic prenatal monitoring and timely intervention.
• Non-Communicable Diseases: NCDs like diabetes, cancer, and cardiovascular disease are rising rapidly, driven by urbanization and lifestyle changes. By 2030, NCDs will cause more African deaths than infectious diseases.
• Pharmaceutical Access: 70% of Africa's pharmaceuticals are imported. Supply chain inefficiencies mean that essential drugs are often unavailable in rural areas or expired by the time they arrive.
• Mental Health: Africa has 0.9 mental health workers per 100,000 people — one of the lowest ratios globally. Depression and anxiety disorders affect an estimated 80 million Africans, most of whom have no access to treatment.

The Problems We're Solving

Technology alone does not solve healthcare challenges — it must be combined with an understanding of local context, infrastructure constraints, and cultural dynamics. The key problems we address through our portfolio include:

• Last-Mile Delivery: Our investments in drone delivery and mobile pharmacy platforms bring medications to areas with no road infrastructure.
• Diagnostic Access: AI-powered point-of-care diagnostics eliminate the need for expensive laboratory equipment, enabling screening at community health centers.
• Health Worker Training: XR and simulation-based training platforms allow nurses and community health workers to develop specialist skills without traveling to urban training centers.
• Data Infrastructure: Electronic health record systems designed for low-resource settings — offline-capable, multilingual, and interoperable.
• Health Financing: Micro-insurance and pay-as-you-go health plans that make quality care affordable for the 95% of Africans without health insurance.

Our Impact by the Numbers

The Future: Democratizing World-Class Healthcare

We envision a future where every African — regardless of location, income, or infrastructure — has access to quality healthcare. This is not utopian thinking; it is a technological inevitability. The convergence of AI diagnostics, telemedicine, drone logistics, and mobile connectivity is making it possible to deliver healthcare without hospitals, and specialist care without specialists.

Over the next five years, Eruba Group plans to deploy $50 million into MedTech startups, with particular focus on:

• AI-powered radiology and pathology (reducing the need for specialist physicians)
• Digital therapeutics for mental health and chronic disease management
• Blockchain-based pharmaceutical supply chain verification
• Genomics and personalized medicine for African populations

How Far Are We from Our Goal?

Our target is to reach 5 million patients through our portfolio by 2029. At 500,000 patients served, we are at 10% — but growth is accelerating exponentially. MediTrack alone is adding 50,000 new patients monthly. We believe we will reach 2 million patients by end of 2026 and our full 5 million goal by 2028 — a full year ahead of schedule.