MOROCCO – Orange Middle East and Africa and AXA Assurance Maroc have acquired a majority stake in DabaDoc, a Moroccan health-tech company digitalizing access to healthcare in Africa. 

The financial terms of the transaction, announced Monday, have not been disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2021. 

“DabaDoc, a leading health-tech platform in Africa, is supporting the digital transformation of healthcare professions,” Zineb Drissi-Kaitouni, co-founder and CEO of DabaDoc, said. 

“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 digitalization of healthcare services is essential and inevitable.”  

With this acquisition, Orange and AXA’s investment and network will accelerate DabaDoc’s growth and extend DabaDoc’s services to other regions, in particular Sub-Saharan Africa.  

Orange is positioned as a prominent participant in e-health thanks to its cooperation with DabaDoc and its reliance on AXA’s globally known experience in healthcare. 

“The pandemic has strengthened our belief that the digitalization of healthcare services is essential and inevitable.”  

Zineb Drissi-Kaitouni – Co-founder and CEO, DabaDoc

With this acquisition, AXA Assurance Maroc, which first invested in DabaDoc in 2018, is reinforcing its partnership with the company to accelerate the digitalization and integration of its customers’ healthcare journeys. 

It will also easen policyholders’ interactions with healthcare professionals, notably through DabaDoc’s appointment booking and remote consultation infrastructure and neoHealth. 

DabaDoc will benefit from AXA’s wide experience as a worldwide leader in health insurance, as well as Orange’s technology knowledge and payment systems, to allow the development of digital solutions that scale quickly and benefit patients and the broader African healthcare ecosystem. 

“We are delighted to commit to this 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 the digital transformation is a source of progress and that e-health has huge potential,” Alioune Ndiaye, CEO of Orange Middle East and Africa, said. 

“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.”  

DabaDoc, founded by a trained medical doctor Zineb Drissi-Kaitouni and Driss Drissi-Kaitouni in 2014, is a platform that digitalizes access to healthcare in Africa.  

“AXA is a global leader in health insurance and related services. This is one of the Group’s strategic priorities as part of the Driving Progress 2023 plan,” Meryem Chami, CEO of AXA Assurance Maroc and AXA CIMA, said. 

“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.”  

DabaDoc solutions are used by thousands of healthcare professionals in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria.