Techstars-backed Vittas is bringing bespoke credit to Nigeria’s healthcare industry

Vittas wants to solve the issue of credit in the Nigerian healthcare sector. The problem of access to credit has ravaged the Nigerian state for years, cutting across a myriad of industries; hospitality, technology, agriculture etc. Across industries in Nigeria, entrepreneurs have to deal with almost no access to loans or loans with punishing interests and repayment plans.

With the rise of fintech and the new focus on credit, innovators have been creating solutions to meet the credit needs of entrepreneurs looking to keep their businesses afloat.

This is why the solution that Vittas offers has the potential to move the needle in the healthcare industry in an impactful way. The startup is already drawing investors’ attention, snagging a slot at the inaugural ARM Labs Lagos Techstars Accelerator Program, which had its demo day this month.

Founded in 2019 by Sulav Singh, Collins Uche and Eric Okemmadu, “Vittas is a digital lender for healthcare providers, using machine learning, partnerships and embedded 3rd party SaaS solutions to provide loans for purchasing medications and medical equipment,” information material from Techstars Lagos describing the company reads.

“There are 60 thousand healthcare facilities in Nigeria. 45 per cent experience stock out, and 91 per cent don’t have access to financing support,” Sulav Singh, the company’s chief executive, said. “For those that do, they can access loans paying 60 per cent per month, and they have to repay those loans in just thirty days,” he added.

With Vittas, he hopes to change that experience and bring loans to startups to stock up their inventories and acquire needed medical equipment to expand their operations. Vittas is also looking to give entrepreneurs in the medical space more breathable repayment plans for up to twelve months.

“As of right now, it’s very difficult for most individuals and institutions to get access to funding. And without funding, they are not able to grow their business. At Vittas we improve healthcare outcomes by providing loans to hospitals and pharmacies to access both medication and medical equipment. And this is done at nearly half the cost, over six to 12 months,” the chief executive said.

Sulav Singh acquiesces that there are existing solutions to the problems of funding and credit for people in healthcare. But he argues that those solutions are not tailored specifically for the healthcare market in Nigeria.

“Existing solutions are great. But they focus on the supply side and don’t address the financing issues. Or they don’t have products suited for healthcare. By focusing specifically on healthcare inventory financing, we’ve been able to enable 45 per cent of our customers to expand to multiple locations,” he said.

Sulav Singh says that Vittas is not just looking to solve the problems of credit, but to provoke a complete overhaul of the ecosystem, changing the very engine of its current operation in Nigeria.

“Our vision is a world where everybody has access to quality and affordable healthcare,” he said. “We will help healthcare bring down their costs and improve their access via our ecosystem which includes in-house suite of staff solutions, healthcare lending and a Vittas medical distributor that’s focused on specific and specialised medical equipment,” he added.

Vittas is an ecosystem looking to trigger a more transparent healthcare experience with long terms plans of working with both manufacturers of healthcare products in the country and creating products directly for the final consumers.

“We’re creating an ecosystem that brings transparency into the healthcare market so that we can get access to affordable financing for hospitals and pharmacies and even potentially go upstream and downstream. We want to be able to work with the manufacturers as well as the patients at some point,” he said.

“We are providing not just cash which is a commodity, but we are also creating software solutions that give us more visibility into the transactional intent of our customers. So even before they come to us for a loan, we know if they’re going to be improved,” he added.