The Supervisory Board of CarePay International is pleased to announce the appointment of Kees van Lede as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and the appointment of Onno Schellekens as the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of CarePay International. The changes will be effective per 1 January 2023.

Digitizing the healthcare journeyInspired by the revolution of mobile technology and the problems in health, Onno, Kees and other co-founders launched the CarePay platform in 2015 under the brand name M-TIBA in Kenya as a joint venture with M-PESA Foundation. It was the first step to digitalizing the entire care system by efficiently connecting payers, providers, and patients through a platform that reroutes existing money and information flows. Covering the entire end-to-end journey, CarePay facilitates trust, transparency, control and efficiency in healthcare systems to give more people access to affordable and higher quality healthcare.

As all transactions and related information flows are handled in real-time in the cloud, administration costs caused by manual processing are lowered drastically. Hospitals are paid much faster, better rates are unlocked, and the high level of transparency causes higher levels of trust. As individuals can be uniquely identified high unaccounted costs, often caused by fraud, are significantly reduced. And by having 24/7 insights in one's healthcare cover and limits through the mobile phone, the individual is in full control.

Onno: ‘The sim card gave rise to a revolution where communication and transactions are possible on a massive scale and at much lower costs. It gave people a personal identity and a means to pay digitally for the first time as the sim card became their bank account. Mobile technology creates digital trust and empowers individuals by offering the means to be identified and to participate. Based on these foundations, the CarePay platform offers the key factors to transform the healthcare ecosystem.’

Lowering costs and increasing transparency to offer more people the access to affordable healthcareAfter the proof of concept in Kenya, we expanded to Nigeria in 2018. So far more than 4,7 million people and 4,200 healthcare providers have been registered on the platform and preparing for expansion to other countries. In 2019 CarePay raised 45 million USD in our Series A and in 2020 we were listed in the top 10 of Fortune’s 500 ‘Change the World’ index.

Kees : ‘Across Sub-Saharan Africa, only 2-5% of the people have access to private health insurance. Millions of people are falling into poverty because of unexpected high healthcare costs.  The lack of trust and unaffordability stop people from seeking healthcare treatment and paying upfront. By connecting every individual to the platform at very low marginal costs, we have proven we can lower healthcare costs with 15 to 20% through the benefits of digitalization. A solid foundation to give more people the access to affordable healthcare.’

As CEO, Kees will focus on growing our business in Kenya, Nigeria and new countries, exploring further innovations to drive the transformation in healthcare. Both with existing clients like leading insurers, governments and non-profit organizations, as with valuable partners such as Pharmaccess Foundation, Medical Credit Fund and telecom operators Safaricom and MTN.As the chairman of the Supervisory Board, Onno will stay closely involved in the long term strategy and business development of the company.

Lastly, in accordance with the changes made in Management, Maarten Ras is appointed as Chief Commercial Officer.

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