MOSES MUKUNDI H’24
Digital health insurance for employers in Africa
The health insurance market in sub-Saharan Africa is estimated at $10 billion and growing at 12% per annum. Health insurance penetration in sub-Saharan Africa on the other hand is a paltry 0.2% – 15 times lower than its emerging peers. This means that, on average, 60% of healthcare spending is out of pocket. This results in reduced access to health insurance and an increase in the catastrophic nature of large medical bills, resulting in 15 million Africans slipping into poverty every year. The biggest challenge is the administrative cost of health insurance. Due to the manual nature of the incumbent insurance, there are higher levels of fraud, waste and abuse, limited products, high operational costs, poor customer experience and high prices that exclude many people from obtaining cover.
Mukundi had a severe asthma attack while on a work trip to Uganda and needed airlifting to Nairobi, which was covered by his insurance. The doctor, however, forgot to sign the pre-authorisation request for the airlift. The insurer rejected the claim despite the doctor emailing a signed copy within minutes and he had to pay for the costs out of pocket. This frustration fuelled his ambition to improve access to simple, fast and stress-free insurance across Africa. In 2022, he founded Eden Care, a health insure-tech startup to deliver a better customer experience, efficient operations and cheaper products.
“We’re creating the kind of health underwriter we want for ourselves.”
Operating at the intersection of technology, data science, business growth strategy and healthcare
Over a period of six months, Mukundi met with more than 100 HR managers, regulators, the top 6 hospitals and over 80 healthcare providers in Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda. He wanted to understand the similarities and differences of the markets, the demand for a digital health insurance product and the launch and licensing challenges and opportunities in each country.
Eden Care provides personalized and comprehensive health insurance coverage with digital solutions for seamless healthcare experiences and dedicated support. They have curated a network of more than 650 trusted healthcare professionals and wellness experts and work with employer groups as well as individual members and their dependants. Users also benefit from Eden Care’s innovative “ProActiv” health and wellness program designed to enhance overall well-being. Eden Care generates revenue from underwriting profits and investment income by investing the ‘premium float’. As they scale, Mukundi intends to take on more of the underwriting risk to increase their margins.
Eden Care is solving the problem for the 100 million employees employed by the formal and informal sectors in Africa. He believes that aggregators, such as employers and trade associations, will be the biggest drivers of health insurance uptake. Given Africa’s low wages, employer-provided care is the best avenue for broader access to comprehensive care.
Mukundi’s goal is to grow Eden Care across Africa to cover 300 million Africans. His intention is to reduce the 15 million Africans who slip into poverty annually by over 80%. He believes that fewer catastrophic events will result in the building of compounding wealth, the education of children without interruption, more girls in school (they are most affected when a family slips into poverty) and a healthy happy African population.
LEARN MORE ABOUT EDEN CARE
Eden Care provides digital health insurance for employers in Africa.
Developing industry-changing tech and operations
ABOUT MOSES MUKUNDI
Mukundi has a Bachelor of Laws Degree from the University of Nairobi where he majored in Commercial Law and an MBA, majoring in Finance and Strategy, from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
I AM A HARAMBEAN
Mukundi believes that entrepreneurship can be a bubble and if you don’t step outside often, you miss new perspectives. Harambeans are a network of entrepreneurs building in Africa for Africa with a multiplicity of viewpoints. He wants to join a community that challenges him, expands his perspective and nudges him to be better and focused on his goal for a better Africa.
“I want to improve access to simple, fast, and stress-free insurance across Africa.”