Alan, the French health insurance company known for pairing coverage with preventive care, has completed its first African acquisition, buying Tanel, a Dakar-based digital health startup operating in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.
The deal, announced Wednesday, gives Alan an entry point into sub-Saharan Africa’s health insurance market — one it has watched for two years, having first invested in Tanel’s 2024 seed round.
What Tanel Brings
Founded in 2021 by Mouhamed Ndoye and Makhtar Diop, Tanel built digital tools to help companies manage employee health coverage, replacing paper-based systems still common across the region. The platform now serves roughly 70,000 members across more than 400 companies, with connections to over 1,200 pharmacies and healthcare providers in the two countries.
The founders have described their task less as building a startup than building missing infrastructure — starting with pharmacies, then expanding to cover the broader patient journey.
Both will stay on to lead Tanel’s operations and Alan’s broader African push, and the existing team remains in place.
Why This Market
Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire offer Alan a health insurance market worth close to €600 million, growing around 10 percent annually, according to the companies. That growth rate, combined with low existing penetration of digital health tools, makes the region attractive to an insurer looking beyond its established base.
Alan currently serves more than 1.2 million members across France, Spain, Belgium and Canada. Africa represents uncharted territory — a market with different regulatory systems, payment infrastructure and healthcare delivery norms than the ones Alan has operated in.
That is where Tanel’s two years as an Alan-backed portfolio company appear to have mattered. The companies say the relationship gave Alan visibility into local operations and regulation before committing to a full acquisition — a more gradual approach than an outright market entry might have allowed.
The Integration Plan
The two companies plan to reach more than one million members across Africa by 2030. The initial phase will focus on strengthening the existing Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire operations and integrating Tanel’s platform with Alan’s technology, including telehealth and preventive care services, before expanding into Anglophone markets in West and East Africa.
For now, Tanel’s users and business partners will keep working with the existing team while gradually gaining access to Alan’s broader service offering.
A Rare Exit for Francophone Africa
Beyond the strategic logic, the deal carries symbolic weight for a region where startup exits remain scarce. Ventures Platform, one of Tanel’s early investors, called the acquisition an important milestone, noting that African tech overall sees few exits — and Francophone Africa fewer still.
The transaction provided a payout for Tanel’s founders and its investor base, which included Ventures Platform, AAIC Investment, and individual backers such as Dr. Mussaad M. Al-Razouki, Alyune-Blondin Diop, and Charles “Chuck” Slaughter.
What’s Left Unanswered
It’s worth noting that Alan’s preventive care model, built for European healthcare systems with different regulatory and payment structures, has not yet been tested at scale in West Africa.
Whether the approach translates directly, or requires significant adaptation, will likely shape how quickly the companies can hit their stated goal of one million African members by 2030 — a more than tenfold increase from Tanel’s current base in under four years.
For now, the acquisition stands as a bet that Alan’s technology, paired with Tanel’s regulatory relationships and provider network, can move faster than either company could have alone.
