Impact investor E Squared Investments has joined 4DX Ventures in a pre-seed expansion investment round for Zoie Health.
Roche reports that 90% of healthcare decisions are made by women, yet few resources help working-class young women, pregnant women, and moms manage their healthcare.
These services are often (1) too expensive (private sector), (2) low-quality (public sector), (3) fragmented, or (4) inefficient with no clear focus.
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Zoie Health offers women’s healthcare
Zoie Health is a platform for women’s health services that focuses on women’s health as a whole.
It has a community of users and experts who have been using it for a while. The platform offers virtual consults, consults at home, medication subscriptions, tools, and a community of women who can help each other through health seasons.
With the money, Zoie Health plans to grow Africa’s first digital women’s health clinic by adding more products and spreading to more countries on the continent.
“Not only do the people who started Zoie Health have a lot of experience in this field, but it’s also very important that the whole team is run by black women. This strong team is building a high-impact tech solution that we think will be a great addition to our group of companies in terms of how well it fits with our values and how much money it will bring in. ”
The deal is an extension of E Squared’s initial funding and helps entrepreneurs through the E Squared Pathways facility,” says Gladwyn Leeuw, E Squared’s Chief Investment Officer.
Leeuw says, “Through this deal, we hope to support digital innovation in women’s health care and give working-class women access to quality, affordable health care.” We think that the digital part will make services that have been hard to get to in the past easier to get to and give an option to people who can’t afford to miss work or stand in long lines at government clinics or who can’t afford private healthcare because it’s too expensive.
Zoie’s low-cost digital solution is used by more than 5,000 people, and 80% of them stay with the service because it uses network effects, relatability, and a sense of belonging well. Even though they are a new business, they have already signed up 50 health practitioners and have 300 more on the way. Their customer satisfaction rating is 9.78 out of 10.
Thato Schermer, co-founder and CEO of Zoie Health, says, “We think our offering has a lot of potentials to grow, and we will be looking to expand to other African emerging markets in the SADC region, as well as Kenya and Nigeria.”
This all-in-one solution includes virtual consultations, consultations at home, medicine subscriptions, and real health intervention services like pap smears, pregnancy tests, contraceptives, fertility testing, etc. The offering also includes a chatbot for general advice, care before and after giving birth, care for families and community support groups, and general health add-ons that are geared towards women.
“It was clear from the start that Zoie Health’s founder, Thato Schermer (nee Mabudusha), a 2015 Allan Grey Orbis Foundation Fellow, would go on to build a business with a big effect.” In 2012 and 2013, Thato won the “Most Entrepreneurial Fellow Award” from the Allan Grey Orbis Foundation, and in 2014, he came in second,” says Sipho Pilime, Search and Pipeline Head at E Squared.
Thato Schermer, Zoie Health’s Founder
Thato’s desire to improve health care in South Africa and the rest of Africa led her to do a study on unmet health needs and look into how modern approaches could improve health outcomes in Africa while she was working as a management consultant at McKinsey in 2015. Because of this interest, she took on jobs like chief of staff to the CEOs of Life Healthcare (Global) and Discovery Vitality and Global Strategy and Business Development Lead.
In 2019, Thato pitched E Squared a business idea. At this point, E Squared joined her business effort.
Thato turned down the full-time accelerator from E Squared because Uber SA gave him a job as a Territory Manager for two years. In 2020, she joined Pathways, a full- and part-time version of the E Squared acceleration scheme that helps Allan Grey founders of new businesses.
Thato was named one of the Top 200 Young South Africans by the Mail & Guardian, one of the Top 50 Women in STEM by the Inspiring Fifty, and an AWIEF Top Technology Entrepreneur Finalist.
She started Zoie Health Technologies with Dr. Nonhlanhla Sitole, who has a PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology and is the Chief Clinical Officer.
Dr. Nono Simelela, WHO’s Special Advisor to the Director General on Strategic Programmatic Priorities, and Florah Chuene, Lead Engineer, join the team. This black, all-female executive team shares Zoie Health’s mission and brings clinical and technological expertise.