![]() 15) from impact investors surveyed by the Global Impact Investing Network were allocated to healthcare last year. Healthcare startups have not traditionally gotten a lot of attention from investors, in part because of questions over whether healthcare should be a public service or one provided by private companies. On the emergency services app, Flare, users will be able to call fire fighters from ICT Fire & Rescue in Nairobi. (Flare’s focus for now is Kenya’s middle class consumers but they hope their service can eventually help lower the cost of ambulances in Nairobi.) Ordering ambulance can cost between 3,500 and 8,500 Kenyan shillings, about $35 to $85. One problem Flare won’t fix immediately is the cost of ambulances, which are often too expensive for many in the city. The ambulances have their own insurance and companies are vetted for the proper registration, certification, personnel and equipment before they can join the platform. Flare plans to expand the fleet and may also add private security and police. “We are building the underlying infrastructure behind a 911 system,” Dolkart says.įor now, the platform is connecting users to more than 50 ambulances and up to 10 fire trucks. Within the next six months Flare will become available to consumers. Providers will now know where every other vehicle is located in the city. This way hospitals don’t need to call the various companies until they find a driver an available ambulance or fire-truck. In its initial phase, Flare is integrating a group of companies operating ambulances and fire trucks into its platform, which uses a central map to show the availability and whereabouts of the emergency vehicles. Like Uber, a percentage will be taken off each ride booked on Flare. Ambulance drivers will be equipped with smartphones and Google maps, with the exact location of pickup and directions that account for traffic. Using Flare, they can track and communicate with the dispatched team until it arrives. Ultimately, Flare users will be able to call for an ambulance using the app or a hotline. To make sure things run smoothly, they are introducing the app in stages. “How can you get Uber or food delivered to your door, but you can’t get an ambulance?” Dolkart says. Dolkart and her partner Maria Rabinovich, came up with the idea of Flare last year after five years of working in healthcare and tech in East Africa. It’s a niche but important market, according to Caitlin Dolkart, one of the founders of Flare, an emergency services app that launches this month. ![]() In February, a three-month old boy died while waiting for an ambulance for more than five hours. Without navigation systems, ambulance drivers easily get lost. The police emergency number often doesn’t work. ![]() Nairobi has 20 emergency rooms and clinics, as well as at least 100 ambulances in operation in the city of about 3 million-well above the rate the World Health Organization recommends of 1 ambulance per 50,000 people.īut patients have to go through a tortuous process of calling a police dispatcher who connects them to an ambulance company or calling individual ambulance companies until they find one. The problem isn’t that there aren’t enough ambulances or emergency clinics. ![]() Ambulances, most of which are run by private companies, take on average two hours to arrive. Getting to a hospital for a medical emergency can be a nightmare in Kenya’s capital. Soon, Nairobians will also be able order an ambulance from their phones. In Nairobi, most things can be ordered from your phone-an Uber, or taxi from one of several other taxi hailing app companies, a boda boda driver to run an errand for you on his bike, and dinner from a restaurant across town or just groceries from down the street. A startup in Kenya is launching “Uber for ambulances” ![]()
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