Orange Middle East and Africa and AXA Assurance Maroc have jointly acquired Moroccan e-health startup DabaDoc, and plan to help the platform scale across Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.
Founded in 2014 by Zineb Drissi-Kaitouni and Driss Drissi-Kaitouni, DabaDoc offers solutions for healthcare professionals to digitise access to healthcare in Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria.
The platform is now set for further expansion after seeing Orange and AXA – which invested in DabaDoc in 2018 – jointly take a majority stake in the company, with the transaction expected to close in the third quarter of 2021.
DabaDoc will utilise the partnership to scale further across Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, aided by Orange’s technological support and AXA expertise in healthcare.
“DabaDoc, a leading health-tech platform in Africa, is supporting the digital transformation of healthcare professions. Orange’s investment in DabaDoc and AXA’s renewed investment will strengthen DabaDoc’s growth ambitions through Orange and AXA’s presence in Africa and the Middle East. The pandemic has strengthened our belief that the digitalisation of healthcare services is essential and inevitable,” said Zineb Drissi-Kaitouni, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of DabaDoc.
Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, said he was delighted to commit to the “ambitious partnership” with AXA and DabaDoc to serve the healthcare needs of everyone in Africa and the Middle East through digital technology.
“At Orange, we are convinced that digital transformation is a source of progress and that e-health has huge potential. As a responsible operator on the continent, we want to contribute to this major social challenge, especially during a pandemic. The deployment of this type of solution in the countries where we are present will greatly facilitate populations’ access to healthcare services, which is essential to the continent’s development,” he said.
Meryem Chami, CEO of AXA Assurance Maroc and AXA CIMA, said AXA was a global leader in health insurance and related services, one of the group’s strategic priorities as part of its Driving Progress 2023 plan.
“This ambition is even stronger as we are facing an unprecedented health crisis. Through this partnership, we therefore aim to enable patients to access a better healthcare journey in Morocco and to support DabaDoc through its development in the CIMA countries as well,” she said.
