[Transcript] #58: Reliance Health - How the HealthTech platform is providing insurance & health services across Nigeria & Africa
Transcript for podcast originally recorded on November 3, 2022
😉 In November 2022, we explored the story of Reliance Health, the African HealthTech company. Reliance was founded to address healthcare accessibility and affordability issues in Nigeria. Even as of 2023, some reports indicated that ~120M Nigerians did have health insurance coverage. Reliance offers relatively affordable healthcare plans and a range of healthcare services including telemedicine services, They initially gained recognition for its innovative approach and partnerships with local health providers. Eventually it expanded its services to include mental health support and chronic disease management. I personally use Reliance for insurance in Nigeria, so I hope they succeed.
Companies discussed: Reliance Health, Y Combinator (YC), Hygeia HMO, AXA Mansard, RedCare & BIMA Health
Business concepts discussed: Insurance monetization, Insurance partnerships, consumer distribution, telco partnerships, product development, consumer market penetration & pricing strategy
Enjoy!
Olumide Ogunsanwo
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Transcript starts here
[00:00:00] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Welcome to Afrobility, a conversation about African business and technology. Today, we're going to talk about Reliance Health, the African health tech company. We'll explore the Reliance Health story across the following five areas. 1) African health context, 2) Early history, 3) Product and monetization strategy, 4) Competitive positioning and exit options & 5) Overall outlook. This episode was recorded on October 30, 2022.
I'm glad we did this episode. After InsurTech. I'm ready to talk about Reliance Health and Insurance. Why are we talking about Reliance?
[00:00:38] Bankole Makanju: Reliance is a health provider that uses mobile phones, telemedicine, and data science to make health insurance cheaper and easier to access for everyone across Africa.
[00:00:51] Olumide Ogunsanwo: Not to be confused with Reliance in India. We made a Reliance India episode eight, but that’s a completely different company. This is the Nigerian/African health startup that offers health services.
Their tagline is: We make quality healthcare affordable and accessible in emerging markets.They do more stuff than I originally assumed. They say they offer a comprehensive set of health services: Insurance through Reliance HMO, telemedicine, and a bunch of other health services through “Reliance Family Clinics” which is a network of first party and third party physical clinics. And a few things to note about them, they have a BGC model. The sales directly to consumers AKA patients, a B2B model, the sales to employers who then buy for their employees.
They are the actual underwriter, which for people who are not so familiar with the industry means they're actually responsible for fulfilling the claims versus selling it for someone else as a broker. So a few unique things.