A UAE healthtech startup that has been operating for less than 12 months has just raised an additional $1.6 million (€1.4M) in funding in a pre-series A round, it has emerged.

Klaim – which describes itself as an insurtech platform offering a SaaS medical claim management and financing platform – secured funding in a round led by Saudi Arabia’s Mad’a Investments. Additional investors include Arzan Venture Capital, Wealth Well, and Techstars.

The company revealed that the group funding, plus individual strategic angel investment “will contribute to KLAIM's development, enabling its penetration in the Saudi and US markets.”

This brings the total funding raised by KLAIM so far to $2.7 million (€2.3M).

THE LARGER CONTEXT

Launched in December 2020, Klaim is reportedly on a mission to “help healthcare providers get paid what they’re owed, on time.”

The solution involves purchasing healthcare claims from medical providers, thereby relieving them of cash flow issues that the company states are caused by insurance companies.

“Using our company’s tech-enabled factoring as a service platform, providers no longer have to worry about pending claim payments,” said KLAIM co-founder and CEO, Karim Dakki. “Access to liquidity upfront allows providers to prioritise high-quality medical care and grow their practice.”

WHY IT MATTERS

According to research released by KLAIM, it takes an average 113 days for UAE insurance companies to reimburse 90% of outstanding claims to providers. The remaining 10%, meanwhile, can apparently remain unresolved for over a year, or even go unpaid.

“This is a severe problem impacting the industry since capital tied up with insurers cannot be invested in improving the quality of healthcare,” the startup explained in a statement.

With planned expansion to Saudi Arabia, the company revealed it wants to “add value” by “enabling hospitals and clinics to reduce claim processing costs and optimise cash flow management. This is in support of the Kingdom’s new National Platform for Health Information Exchange Services (NPHIES), it said.

“The Government is committed to developing a new, efficient and modern model to manage the country's medical insurance financial flows,” the statement added.

“We believe that every dirham spent on healthcare matters immensely, simply because healthcare affects everyone,” continued Dakki. “It is time for innovative technology solutions that are challenging the status quo to better serve healthcare financial leaders and help them ensure the GCC nationals’ and residents’ healthcare dirham goes as far as possible in providing patient care.”

ON THE RECORD

“Rejections and claim payment delays result in losses amounting to millions of dollars annually across the industry,” said KLAIM co-founder and chief revenue officer, Ghafoor Ahmad. “Healthcare providers face business instability in their day-to-day operations: paying salaries, upgrading equipment, and expanding pose greater challenges than they should. We support the industry to provide better care through our innovative blended approach to finance and healthcare.”

He added: “The factoring industry is big globally but limited to large companies in the Middle East. We introduced a steep innovation making it tech-enabled and very specific to the needs of healthcare providers. We are very excited to be the go-to solution and help medical practitioners focus on their patients' health. At the same time, we handle medical claims processing for them.”