Generation Start-up: How Alma Health is easing the lives of people with chronic conditions

The HealthTech start-up plans to double down on its success in Abu Dhabi and expand its user base in Dubai and Saudi Arabia

Tariq Seksek (left) and Khaldoon Bushnaq, co-founders of Alma Health. Photo: Alma Health

Software professional Khaldoon Bushnaq co-founded Alma Health along with Tariq Seksek in the middle of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.

It was the perfect time to launch a venture that could help people with chronic conditions.

Alma Health, a direct-to-patient digital healthcare platform, provides direct medical consultations to people living with conditions such as diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol and asthma via its mobile application.

The Abu Dhabi Global Market-based venture has a panel of licensed, in-house general practitioners and offers lab tests that can be done in the comfort of the home.

The platform, which was part of the early cohorts of Hub 71, also allows patients to fill their prescriptions, fully covered by the user’s health insurer, without the need to physically visit a clinic or a hospital.

Both co-founders have software engineering degrees and were part of the buzzing corporate culture in the UAE.

Mr Bushnaq, who obtained his degree in engineering from Carleton University in Canada and later his MBA from the University of Cambridge in 2015, was head of strategy and business performance at Careem.

Mr Seksek, an engineering graduate from the University of Western Ontario, previously held product management roles in companies including Dubizzle and Starzplay.

The duo wanted to distinguish the offerings of Alma, developing a model based on their corporate experience and the disruptive effect of technology on different businesses.

The high smartphone penetration rates in the region supported their business case of accelerating the development of services provided to people with chronic conditions in the region.

“During my tenure at Careem between 2016 until 2020, I realised the impact that technology had on the transportation sectors in the UAE, in Saudi Arabia and in the other parts of the region,” Mr Bushnaq, who is also chief executive of the company, says.

“I have a very strong core belief that many technology companies and technology services will solve a massive problem for the population and will witness a very rapid adoption rate.”

While the pandemic was a difficult time for everyone, it was also a time to learn a valuable lesson: to be prepared for the next pandemic or endemic, he says.

“The two critical trends we have seen and we strongly capitalised on to start a digital healthcare business are the regulators’ agility to licence digital healthcare providers, physicians' rapid adoption of digital health and patients' rising expectations from their healthcare providers,” says Mr Bushnaq.

It was evident to Mr Bushnaq, who himself has a chorionic condition, that there were many opportunities for simplification and transformation.

For example, there is no need to go to a hospital to renew and refill a prescription if the condition is stable.

The alternative is provided by Alma, but the value proposition of the platform is much more than the other telemedicine players in the UAE and the region.

“Contrary to a typical telemedicine company, where a physician doesn't necessarily work for the company, our business model is completely different. At Alma Health, those physicians are employed by Alma Health. This helps us provide our members with a high quality, specialised and customised care plan,” he says.

The company’s staff and doctors, based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, are licensed by the Department of Health in both emirates. Professionals who work part-time are also registered and licensed by their local health authorities.

“We believe the back-end verticalisation and the specialisation are what differentiates us from other players,” Mr Bushnaq says.

HealthTech start-ups in the Mena region are taking off, with more than $400 million in VC funding received since 2016, according to a recent report by Dealroom, an Amsterdam-based provider of data and intelligence on start-ups and tech ecosystems.

The combined enterprise value of HealthTech companies in the region is now worth over $1.7 billion, an 8x increase since 2017, Dealroom said.

HealthTech investment in Mena reached $106 million last year, up from $73 million the previous year. The UAE attracted $192.7 million in venture capital funding between 2018 and 2022, the highest in Mena.

Telemedicine and biotechnology segments have received the most VC investments so far since 2018, according to Dealroom.

Being part of the Department of Health’s Technology Hub in Hub 71, Alma Health received a lot of guidance from the regulator on how to set up digital clinics, pharmacies, and how to obtain necessary licences to offer safe and quality health care to users.

“This part of the world has one of the highest prevalence rates of chronic conditions globally and it’s time for a serious push to improve healthcare access,” says Mr Bushnaq.

As many as 120 million people in Mena live with chronic conditions today, and frequently rely on an inefficient primary care system that has not changed meaningfully in over 100 years, he says.

In Saudi Arabia, there are 15 million people who live with at least one chronic condition, the highest prevalence in the region.

“Saudis with a chronic condition visit a doctor at least four times per year and dispense a minimum of eight prescriptions, and yet there are only 13 general practitioners and one pharmacist per 10,000 people. In stark contrast, the US has 26 GPs and eight pharmacists per 10,000 people,” he says.

“With rates of diabetes, heart disease, obesity, asthma and other diseases soaring year on year, healthcare spending is also rising at a phenomenal rate and has increased three times in the UAE and 3.5 times in Saudi Arabia between 2004 and 2020,” Mr Bushnaq says.

However, authorities in the region are paying very close attention and are constantly improving regulations to simplify healthcare access for people living with these conditions.

“This was especially fuelled by the most recent pandemic when authorities, such as the Department of Health of Abu Dhabi, for example, started licensing telemedicine providers and started issuing permits for the safe delivery of prescription-based medication to the patients’ doorstep.”

Since its inception, the company has recorded double-digit growth in the number of users, with tens of thousands of customers in Abu Dhabi alone, he adds.

Alma Health completed its licensing formalities this year in Dubai and Saudi Arabia as well as integration with major insurance providers. Mr Bushnaq expects to replicate the success the company has seen in Abu Dhabi in Dubai and Saudi Arabian markets as well.

The company aims to scale up its operations in Dubai and Riyadh and plans to expand to Egypt next.

“We have ambitious plans to scale our user base from the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands within the next 12 months by doubling down on our presence in the UAE and Saudi Arabia,” he says.

So far, the company has managed to raise more than $15 million from regional and global investors including e & capital, Knuru capital, The Oryx Fund, Khwarizmi Ventures and Global Founders Capital.

It closed its most recent financing round of $10 million in July, which has given the company a “depth of capital” that will accelerate its vertical integration in its markets, says Mr Bushnaq.

The company is currently completing technical integrations with AI-powered consumer medical devices for at-home monitoring.

“If the utilisation of such devices is massively successful, Alma Health can become an acquirer of such MedTech companies. This is just an example of how we can continue to innovate to provide our members with improved clinical outcomes to help them live with their chronic conditions,” he says.

Going forward, he says the company will continue to maintain its core focus on chronic care.

“We have clear indicators that we are successfully transforming the lives of people living with chronic conditions through our coverage of their end-to-end journey led by our experienced and specialised physicians.”

Q&A: Khaldoon Bushnaq, co-founder and chief executive of Alma Health

What already successful start-up do you wish you had started?

I think I have a number of start-ups in mind. In HealthTech, I am a fan of Ro Health, Pharmeasy and OneMedical. Outside of HealthTech, it is SpaceX.

What new skills have you learnt from launching your venture?

Managing a large team. To be a strong leader, hiring people smarter than you is probably one of the best things you can do to manage a highly effective team.

If you could start all over again, what would you do differently?

Start the company earlier. I think by now we would have transformed the lives of a larger number of people living with chronic conditions in the region.

What changes in health care should patients expect in the next decade?

The healthcare system will become more patient-centric. The care delivery system will be forced to become more efficient and easier for patients to navigate.

Patient engagement will yield better, well-documented outcomes by stimulating patients to take on more active roles in promoting and maintaining their health.

What is your next big dream to make happen?

To watch Alma Health grow its capabilities to transform the lives of at least 10 million people living with chronic conditions in the UAE and Saudi Arabia with an unparalleled digital care experience.