Africa | February 3, 2019

Health diagnostics startup StackDx secures funding from Microtraction

Jessica Pothering
ImpactAlpha Editor

Jessica Pothering

ImpactAlpha, February 3 – Lagos-based seed investor Microtraction has backed Stack Diagnostics, which offers disease diagnostic services for healthcare providers in Nigeria.

Inaccurate or late disease diagnosis is a problem in health sectors in Nigeria and other African countries due to a range of causes like poor equipment, inadequately trained personnel, over-stretched resources, and lack of standards and oversight. Cancer, for example, kills roughly 70,000 Nigerians annually, in part because of late or missed diagnoses.

StackDx is contributing to the World Health Organization’s call to improve early and accurate disease diagnosis with its low-cost at-home testing kits and drop-in labs. Its range of tests cover cancers, autoimmune and hormonal disorders, viral and bacterial infections, allergies and genetic disorders. Patients can share records with doctors and health facilities anywhere in the world, according to StackDx’s website. The company is also looking to build out genetic testing services.

Microtraction, a pre-seed investor for African tech companies, invested an undisclosed amount of funding in StackDx. Microtraction launched last year to help African startups overcome early funding gaps. It invests up to $65,000 at a time. Stack Dx is its eighth investment.