- Afya had a Nasdaq IPO last year and since then the firm is seeking acquisitions and the development of new products;
- Afya aims to be the doctors’ one-stop-shop, and iClinic’s acquisition is key for that.
On Tuesday, the Brazilian medical education group Afya announced the acquisition of 100% of the shares of the SoftBank-funded health tech iClinic. The net purchase price was BRL 182.7 million, of which 61.5% was paid in cash, and 38.5% was paid in Afya’s stock. The transaction was carried out through its subsidiary Afya Participações S.A.
iClinic is a Brazilian startup that has its own physician-focused SaaS platform. LABS talked to iClinic’s CEO and co-founder, Felipe Lourenço, in August, when iClinic received SoftBank’s investments – the first round led by the Japanese group focused on a Latin America health tech startup.
The value of the deal was not disclosed, but, back then, iClinic reported a 400% growth amid the COVID-19 pandemic, comparing the second quarter of this year to the same period of 2019. Besides electronic medical records, the startup provides telemedicine tools, medical marketing, and billing management for doctors and small and medium-sized healthcare institutions in 50 medical specialties.
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“We founded iClinic to empower doctors with technology in their managerial activities so they can improve their patient experience and provide high-quality healthcare to their patients,” said Lourenço in a press release. “I’m very excited to join Afya’s team so we can work together to achieve the same goal.”
During the Global Summit Telemedicine & Digital Health 2020 on Wednesday morning, Felipe Rodrigues Affonso, director at SoftBank Group International, said that SoftBank chose to invest in iClinic because they consider it to be the best electronic medical record company in Brazil. “The iClinic team is fantastic, with no money, only with the D’Or Family Office [Rede D’Or São Luiz, the largest private health group in Brazil] infusion but without any funds, they managed to become the largest electronic medical record company, set up a sustainable business with a product gap above the others,” he said.
For Affonso, SoftBank’s philosophy is always to support the founders. “We have BRL 5 billion to invest in the region, we are going to set up a large portfolio. We joined iClinic to complement, help financially, and connect the company. Afya came up with a good proposal and we had a return on our capital in three months. We are happy with the investment and the founders are excited.”
On his behalf, Afya’s CEO, Virgílio Gibbom, said on a press release that the firm is taking another step to becoming the one-stop-shop for physicians in Brazil, which was, before, the aim of iClinic.
Afya had a Nasdaq IPO last year and since then the firm is seeking acquisitions and the development of new products. “Now, besides medical and health education courses and a clinical decisions app, we enter in a new segment that can help physicians manage their clinics and provide a better service to their patients,” he said.
