MDaaS Global's 2023 in Review

Hi All,

Happy New Year from the MDaaS Family! As I have been reflecting on the last year, one quote keeps popping into my mind:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”

Charles Dickens may have been writing about 19th-century Europe, but this sentiment also summarizes our 2023 quite aptly. As a company, we faced numerous headwinds throughout the year, and yet, we emerged a better, more resilient version of ourselves.

When a slow raise meant that we had to put center expansion on hold, we doubled down on growth at our existing locations and shifted our focus to technology development and deployment. When high inflation made everything from medical consumables to groceries more expensive, we further centralized our purchasing to manage costs and implemented a company-wide pay increase to support our 200 team members. When the Naira experienced significant devaluation with the country’s changing economic policies, we tapped into new dollar revenue sources that both improved our financial sustainability and multiplied the impact that we have as a company.

Part of being an entrepreneur, especially one working in a challenging market, is being relentlessly optimistic. This relentless optimism helps us build an antifragile business, one that doesn't just survive tough times, but uses those challenges to learn new things and turn “worst” into “best”.

We are excited to share some of our 2023 “bests” with you here, and we remain grateful to our team members, partners, investors, and supporters who make our work possible.

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We served a record number of patients

In 2023, we provided care to a record 108,724 patients, bringing our total number of patients served to over 250,000. Women continued to make up the majority of our patients at 60.8%. We conducted over 240,000 diagnostic tests, with our top three procedures being chest x-ray, urinalysis, and full blood count. As our patient numbers grew, we continued to provide excellent care, achieving a net promoter score above 90 and an average Google rating of 4.7 stars across our 18 center locations.

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We stress-tested our financial model

One silver lining of a lengthy raise is that it allowed us to see what it takes for our business to become EBITDA positive. Over a few months, we were able to reduce our net burn by over 50% and hit EBITDA positivity in our Nigerian operations. Furthermore, despite pausing center expansion, we were still able to increase center revenue by 1.8X in Naira terms by continuing to build trust and sign new partnerships in the communities where we operate. Knowing which levers we can pull to increase our runway and drive profitability means that we can weather tough times and longer fundraising cycles - all while continuing to provide excellent care to our patients.  

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We launched our new diagnostics technology platform

In many ways, 2023 was a year of tech for us. We finished building the technology backbone of our business in the first quarter and deployed our first application, BeaconOS, across all our diagnostic centers by the end of Q2. We describe BeaconOS as the operating system for our diagnostics facilities (both MDaaS-owned and affiliate locations). In a significant upgrade to our previous tech stack, BeaconOS allows us greater visibility into the day-to-day operations of our centers and makes it significantly easier for our center teams to manage patient visits and clinical results. In 2024, we are excited to build additional applications for our stakeholders (including patients, HMOs, and corporate partners) and explore new ways to leverage our data for things like clinical research and disease monitoring.

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We invested in our people

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We were lucky to work with Rippleworks again this past year, this time on a People Operations focused project. Our amazing Rippleworks expert Denise Dettore supported us in the development of a new performance evaluation process and talent management strategy.

In Q3, when many other companies were in the midst of layoffs, we implemented a company-wide pay increase to help our team members manage the higher costs of living across the country. At the same time, we standardized job titles and salary levels to ensure equitable pay across our organization and introduced a formal career ladder to provide more transparency around career progression within MDaaS. Over the the year we onboarded 66 new team members bringing us to 200 MDaaSians!

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We partnered for even greater impact

In 2023, we continued partnering with CanceAware Nigeria and the Access Bank W Initiative to provide free and subsidized cancer screenings to hundreds of women. We also started a new partnership with Livelihood Impact Fund to bring affordable eyewear to patients across the BeaconHealth Diagnostics network.

Our referral network continued to grow in 2023: we worked with over 1,300 referring clinicians across over 1,000 organizations (from hospitals and pharmacies to healthtech startups and corporate partners) and 34 HMOs.

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Finally, on a more personal note, Genevieve and I became parents!

In August, Genevieve and I welcomed our first child into this crazy world. As the parents out there will know, parenthood is even more overwhelming and unpredictable than founderhood, but, fortunately, even more rewarding. Experiencing the ultrasounds, blood tests, and doctor visits from the other side of the table has deepened our passion and conviction about the work we do at MDaaS. What we have lost in sleep, we have gained in purpose (and adorable baby giggles).

Thank you for making it to the end of the update - and 2023 - with us! We wish you a happy and healthy 2024!

Optimistically yours,

Oluwasoga Oni

CEO, MDaaS
www.mdaas.io