Orange targets Africa E-health as it partners with Axa Assurance to buy DabaDoc

MOROCCO – Orange has teamed up with Axa Assurance in Morocco to acquire a majority stake in health-technology company DabaDoc, as part of the group’s long-term goal to establish itself as a multi-service digital operator in Africa and the Middle East.

The financial terms of the transaction have not been disclosed.

Orange Africa and Middle East and Axa Assurance Maroc will jointly acquire the stake, with the pair running DabaDoc alongside its founders.

DabaDoc, which was set up in 2014, is an online platform offering access to healthcare services in Africa. DabaDoc has developed solutions that are used by thousands of healthcare professionals in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.

The joint investment and alliance sealed between Orange and AXA’s investment will help speed up DabaDoc’s growth and extend its services to other regions, in particular Sub-Saharan Africa.

The deal will enable DabaDoc to benefit from the broad experience of AXA, one of the global leaders in health insurance, and Orange’s technological expertise and payment solutions in African healthcare ecosystem.

Axa Assurance Maroc first invested in DabaDoc in 2018 and said it was now deepening its relationship to accelerate the digitization and integration of “its customers’ healthcare journey”.

Orange said it would provide technological expertise and payment solutions, which will help DabaDoc rapidly scale its operations and services across the African healthcare system.

Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, said they want to contribute to the digital transformation of the healthcare sector, as a “responsible operator on the continent”.

“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 added.

DabaDoc Co-founder Zineb Drissi-Kaitouni expressed the importance of the investment in driving the company’s growth ambitions, while sharing the now ubiquitous message that the importance of the digitalization of healthcare services has rocketed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic

This investment is about more than CSR box-ticking; there’s a real need for digital healthcare in Africa and a sizeable business to be built in this market for those that tackle it in the right way