Reliance Health
“Can a tech-enabled HMO become the dominant employee healthcare OS for businesses in Africa and other emerging markets by combining digital insurance, telemedicine, and a managed provider network?”
Founded in 2015 as Kangpe, a digital health access platform, the company rebranded to Reliance Health in 2018 and pivoted to a full HMO model in Nigeria — combining health insurance, telemedicine, and a provider network into an integrated B2B employee benefits product. After reaching scale in Nigeria, it expanded to Egypt in 2022 and is targeting other emerging markets (Senegal) with an embedded healthcare-payments model where premiums are collected digitally and care is accessed through a mobile app and partner provider network. The company's embedded finance angle is primarily on the payment collection side: plan members and employers pay via card and bank transfer through Paystack, not through proprietary financial infrastructure.