Valentis - web

Financing Access to Healthcare: Design Thinking in Kenya


Founded in 2008 by a veteran Kenyan entrepreneur, Viva Afya ran nine clinics serving working-class neighborhoods in Nairobi. For-profit Valentis sought to expand its health impact beyond its successful clinic for skin health, plastic surgery, and cosmetic medicine, by reaching lower-income segments.


Viva Afya and Valentis built a novel collaboration to develop innovative solutions to a key problem facing low-income patients in urban Nairobi: because of their limited financial capacity, they often failed to seek early or preventative care, leading to a worsening of their illness and greater eventual expenditures. The idea they requested GlobalHealth Lab explore aimed to extend credit to low-income patients that would allow them to access primary care at local private facilities, with Viva Afya serving as an initial pilot site. Viva Afya and Valentis were hopeful that with the input from GlobalHealth Lab, they would successfully launch a product that appeals to multiple patient needs in the course of providing funding for care.