Health tech Company, Susu Raises €2m to Accelerate Affordable Healthcare for Africans

Susu, a global health-tech company, focused on making healthcare accessible and affordable for Africans, has completed a €2 million pre-seed funding round with angel investors. Part of the funding was also raised as debt, and grant financing from BPI France, the French government’s public investment bank. Currently operational in Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, and Senegal, the startup offers bundled health services that provide patients with planned, long-term health support, in order to ensure optimal monitoring of their health conditions, including pregnancy, child care, and chronic disease management.

Africa’s healthcare sector is facing many challenges. The rise in mortality from chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes has been a result of aging populations, urbanization and a longer lifespan. A majority of people lack access to quality healthcare, and are in dire need of solutions to manage their healthcare.

Susu was created in 2019 by Bola Bardet after she lost her father to complications of a chronic health condition due to poor management. Her experience with her father’s condition inspired Bola to help others avoid the same fate. Bola, along with her co-founders Laurent Leconte and Sandrine Egron, have built the startup to help thousands of Africans.

Research shows that 97% of Africans are left without medical insurance. Susu intends to mitigate this problem by supporting beneficiaries’ healthcare journeys through care bundles while using an integrated approach to better connect the patients, their families, and healthcare professionals.

Speaking on the inspiration behind Susu, Bola Bardet, Founder and CEO of Susu said, “ I suffered the terrible loss of my dad due to the mismanagement of his medical condition. I knew that the situation could have been prevented if he had access to comprehensive healthcare and that’s why I started Susu, to provide access to quality and affordable healthcare to others.

Christopher Neves, one of Susu’s angel investors and a senior executive with experience in multinational insurance groups, spoke on the funding saying “I have been following Susu since the beginning of the project. And I see its enormous potential. It is focused on creating a technology solution that will provide affordable healthcare in Africa. Since the start, Bola Bardet and her team have demonstrated their capabilities and ambition in executing such a project”.

With its recent funding, Susu intends to grow the company’s team, enrich the technology platform with new features. It also plans to launch its service in six additional countries in Sub-Saharan Africa including Nigeria, Ghana and Ghana. It is also creating new care bundles that include a maternity care package to reduce the mortality risk for pregnant mothers and their babies.