Med Now Pay Later

Health in fragile contexts challenge:

Recent research indicates that less than 3% of Africa is insured. This means that over 800 million people, most of whom are informal workers ie. farmers, cleaners, vendors and traders are uninsured, out of which about 200 million suffer from chronic illnesses such as malaria, TB & diabetes that require regular medical care and drugs. However, they lack a proper way to finance such healthcare costs due to the irregular nature of their income which not only leads to the lack of medical access but also health shocks which cause poverty cycles to persist amongst them. Therefore, a solution that enables Africans flexibly, affordably and conveniently pay for their medical bills will positively impact the health outcomes of millions of people.

MNPL leverages USSD technology, the most prevalent mobile money channel in Africa to enable the uninsured to finance their healthcare costs through an access now pay later model. Through our platform, our target customers, most of whom are women seeking prenatal/postnatal care and individuals suffering from chronic illnesses can now utilize their credit limit calculated in seconds to access medical services/products then pay us back over time in flexible and affordable micro-installments. They also get other benefits such as;

-Automated text messages reminding them to take their drugs based on the doctor's prescription.

-The ability to add dependents and let them utilize part of your credit based on the limit you set for them.

-A dedicated wallet that allows them to pre-save for future anticipated health expenses then get discounts when you spend at our partner health service providers.

Our target customers are Low income earners, primarily those disproportionately affected by chronic illnesses such as HIV, malaria, TB, cancer, diabetes, smoking & alcohol related health issues plus expectant mothers urgently seeking prenatal/postnatal care & pharmaceuticals. They are big/repeat consumers of health products & services but find challenges spontaneously raising money to cover such costs majorly due to the fact that they earn irregularly. Our solution breaks down lump-sum payments into affordable installments aligned to their income patterns, ie. daily or weekly. Currently, they are underserved by insurance as its basic pay now access later (present cost future benefit) value proposition is simply unattractive to them. This is because their income is limited and tied to more pressing present needs making them unable to save or plan for the future. Apart from the farmers living in rural areas, most live within informal settlements in large African cities such as Lagos, Nairobi, Cairo, Kinshasa and Johannesburg.

Having worked as a casual laborer in NYC as well as run multiple small businesses targeted towards the bottom of the pyramid in Kenya, the COO has deep knowledge and understanding of low income earners needs, their  struggles and cultural nuances. His experience has helped the startup in R&D; building a sound value hypothesis, and now working on its commercialization. Besides, while as a student leader, he started an initiative whose aim was to raise money through sports tournaments then offer academic scholarships to bright students from marginalized communities in Kenya. This experience taught him design thinking and in particular empathizing and co-creating with the end user. This enabled the idea to evolve from its humble beginnings to having impact at scale. 

The CEO has networks across governments and development partners that has helped the startup sign strategic partnerships and in future navigate through the tough regulatory environment in Africa. He is a consultant who has represented youth at the UNDP, Commonwealth as well as Kenya Private Sector Alliance; experiences that have shaped his insight as well as given him wealth of knowledge of the youth, majority of whom are unemployed and face healthcare financing challenges.

Lastly, we have spent about 6 months doing extensive secondary as well as primary research, prototyping, testing, iterating, pivoting till we found the right problem-solution fit. All through this period, we employed human centered design and put the customer at the center of every effort.

We have been conducting the pilot for the past 1 month and have attracted 102 beta users. We also have about 3000 on the waiting list.

After our initial R&D, and the learnings that came with it, the main challenge we have encountered is lacking the capital to continue lending off our balance sheet at scale. We would appreciate connections to financial institutions/investors that can offer us a debt facility plus technical expertise to handle more complex debt structures such as syndicated loans.

Our solution is a Market Creating Innovation in that it aims to create a new market by addressing the main pain point of health non-consumers in Africa- medical financing. In doing so, it will not only democratize access to healthcare services amongst the vulnerable in the society but also have the potential of being a unicorn that impacts over a billion lives. The financing plan we offer also aligns with low income earners income patterns. They earn irregularly, say daily or weekly and we allow them to pay as they earn as opposed to lump sums periodically ie. monthly, quarterly or yearly. Lastly, our solution/product was co-created with our target customers during focus groups to find a product-market fit. During our research, 98% of the people we surveyed were interested in our product and served as our early adopters.

Our goal is in the next year to have impacted 4 million individuals, which represents 10% of the uninsured population in Kenya and Rwanda. In 5-10 years, our goal is to be the preferred healthcare costs financing solution/company in Africa, providing an alternative to insurance amongst the 97% who are not protected. By doing so, we will enable over 100 million individuals to finance their healthcare costs, allowing them to gain access to primary healthcare. Lastly, we intend to contribute to African the government's health development outcomes in line with Universal Health Coverage.

Since our impact goal is to achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines, we will measure our progress through quantifiable data on how our product has enabled;

-Income protection through lessening the financial shocks that result from health Out Of Pocket expenditures.

-Lowering child & maternal deaths.

-Increasing life expectancy.

-Boosting access to primary healthcare & treatment for individuals suffering from chronic illnesses like HIV, TB, Malaria, Diabetes and Cancer.

-Boosting access to sexual and reproductive health-care services.

Med Now Pay Later partners with and onboards health service providers then offers a USSD based platform that enables low income earners to finance their medical costs through BNPL and SNPL models. They are also able to add dependents who can utilize a limit set for them to pay for their own medical expenses. The immediate goals are patients who previously would have foregone treatment due to financial barriers  get access to primary healthcare, care and pharmaceuticals. These immediate goals link to our long-term outcomes which include better medical outcomes such as ; increased lifespan, reduction of patient mortality and financial resilience when faced with health shocks- all in line with Universal Healthcare. We have tested these assumptions through a pilot (where we have extensively conducted a beta test) to establish if there is indeed causality between the variables. Through the process we have discovered that when financial barriers which lead to lack of medical access are lowered, the higher the number of people seeking/consuming health services and living healthier lives.  

Our core technology and primary distribution channel is text based USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data-a network communication protocol), which is the most ubiquitous and prevalent mobile transaction tool, used by 9 out of 10 of the 500 million registered mobile money accounts in Africa. It works similarly in function and purpose as SMS, but has some notable differences ie. It can be used on any type of phone or messaging app and does not require an internet connection, which means even patients in remote areas can access our product.

The technology is very easy to use as it does not require sophisticated technology, and is cheaper than most other channels. No wonder 94% of financial transactions on the African continent are through USSD.

Later on we intend to incorporate AI and ML algorithms to leverage on non-traditional data points such as mobile data to automate the credit scoring process. We believe this will widen the target customer scope to not only include the underserved but also the unserved who are first time consumers of financial services.

As an equal opportunity employer, we have deliberately made sure we have a diverse and inclusive workforce, one in which women and people of color are not only given employment opportunities but also leadership roles. We believe this can inform equitable processes within the organization, identify biased systems, and drive inclusive lending decisions that remove systemic barriers such as discriminative underwriting practices and algorithms that often leave marginalized communities underserved by financial services. Lastly, we intend to later use AI to leverage on non-traditional and often overlooked data points such as mobile money and airtime transactions to automate credit scoring, which will enable us to significantly lower cost of credit, widening the lending scope to include the underserved and unserved. 

Our business model involves delivering flexible & convenient medical financing to uninsured persons at the point of need ie. at health service touch points such as pharmacies, clinics and hospitals. When they fall sick, they can walk into any of our partner medical providers, run a quick KYC and credit score through our ussd code, then get a credit limit that they can use to pay for or subsidize their lump-sum medical bill then pay us back in micro installments over time. Furthermore, they can utilize a savings pot on our platform to save in anticipation of future medical expenses and get massive discounts at our partner HSP's esp. for people with predictable expenses such as those suffering from chronic illnesses. Our revenue model involves charging a 10% facilitation fee upfront. 

Financial sustainability is critical to ensuring we maintain business viability and stability as we scale. Through charging a 10% facilitation fee, we are able to fund our core expenses such as customer acquisition costs, running the tech and operational expenses. 

Since we are a high growth venture, we require an inflow of capital to expand and continue lending off our balance sheet before we partner with a suitable debt provider. To achieve this, we are pursuing a tripartite strategy that involves;

-Optimizing for product-market fit and traction will allow us to fundraise at healthy a valuation in subsequent rounds 

-Using tech to run a robust KYC & credit scoring process which would lower the default rate and allow us to continue charging a low fee.

-De risk our loan portfolio through grants, subsidies and syndicated loans/

Lastly, after achieving product-market fit, we intend to scale through Vertical(we will add new features and products such as AI chatbot for diagnosis and insurance premium financing to our same target market segment) as well as horizontal means(offer these same product, to new geographical markets, starting with East Africa then the rest of Africa)

So far, we have gotten a $13,000 grant form Allan & Gill Gray philanthropies plus raised an angel round of $50,000 which has enabled us commence operations and conduct the pilot. One notable investor that participated in this round is the current Chairman of Central Bank of Kenya- Mr. Mohammed Nyaoga. Our pre-seed round size is $150,000 and it is still ongoing.