Oluwasoga Oni co-founded MDaaS, a Nigeria-based health tech company, with Opeyemi Ologun and Genevieve Oni in 2016. MDaaS provides access to affordable healthcare using an annual subscription plan and a network of diagnostics centers in five Nigerian cities. To date it has raised $3.7 million seed funding from investors including Newtown Partners, CRI Foundation, FINCA Ventures, Techstars and Future Africa

What’s the biggest tech opportunity in Nigeria that’s often overlooked?

Even though the fintech space in Nigeria has seen the most activity over the long term, I believe that the biggest opportunities are in the health and the education sectors. Using technology to enable these historically fragmented sectors will unlock a lot of value and create immense impact.

What is one challenge you face as an early-stage startup in the Nigerian health tech market?

As an early-stage healthcare company in Nigeria one challenge has been hiring for clinical roles, such as doctors, radiographers, and lab scientists, given the significant brain drain Nigeria experiences in those fields. In order to build a strong talent pipeline for our growing company, we have invested more heavily in our recruiting processes and developed our own training programs for young clinicians. 

What has changed in the Nigerian health tech scene over the last five years?

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of digital health services, such as telemedicine and virtual primary care. With patients now more open to experimenting with these new digital services, we in the healthcare space have an opportunity to reach more patients and in more ways. 

How are you preparing your company for the end of the pandemic?

We’re launching a new digital health product called SentinelX and scaling into more cities across Nigeria. The pandemic brought attention to the dangers of often-undiagnosed lifestyle diseases, like hypertension and diabetes, that have risen dramatically across sub-Saharan Africa over the past two decades. SentinelX combines a comprehensive annual screening with ongoing virtual and in-person primary care to help patients identify health issues early and take control of their long-term health.

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