Tani, the platform for medical procedures and surgeries in Latin America, recently raised a $700K USD Pre-Seed round led by Polymath Ventures, with the participation of First Check Ventures, 500 Startups, and an outstanding group of business angels including Roger Laughlin (co-founder of Kavak), Jesse Damstra (CEO of Philips Mexico), and top executives from Cornershop.
Tani was launched in mid-2021 in Mexico City with the purpose of providing quality care and transparent prices for medical procedures and surgeries for the unattended middle-class of Latín America.
The out-of-pocket medical procedures market in Latin America is worth 21B USD and, according to the World Bank, has grown in spent a total of 8% compared to the 3% that was expected.
According to the London School of Economics, the average gap in the public healthcare system in Latin American countries goes up to 40% and is expected to increase after the pandemic. Tani looks to close this gap, allowing more patients to easily access high-quality procedures avoiding some of the major pain points natural to the process of finding a private healthcare solution in Latin America.
“Ambulatory/outpatient clinics are at the center of out-of-pocket spending, yet they lack a set of features that technology has brought to other sectors. This gap creates a huge opportunity for Tani to provide the means for people to find the best places and doctors to do their medical procedures.” Didier Quiroz, Partner at 500 Startups.
With this business model, Tani also aims to help surgeons build their reputation, increase their earnings and focus on what they do best: performing surgeries.
In 2021, Tani focused its efforts on targeting skip-the-line procedures, which are not prioritized by the public healthcare system but are highly needed by patients who sometimes suffer pain for the lack of access.
Some examples of these procedures are related to health specialties such as general surgery, urology, and proctology in which Tani will continue to focus its efforts to prove its business model and start scaling it by reaching both more patients and surgeons.
“Finding and screening for quality surgeons and clinics is a massive challenge for patients. We are building Tani to solve this so that patients can have access to quality surgeons at affordable prices while having the support and care they deserve from an appointment to the surgery, and even beyond. ” Natalie Copuroglu - Founder and CEO
Only 7% of Latin Americans have access to private insurance and some public health systems can take up to 3 years to assign an appointment to one of these skip-of-the-line procedures.
This leaves Tani with the possibility to disrupt and provide better access to medical procedures to the middle-class, not only by creating a platform that facilitates the diagnostic and scheduling process but also by focusing efforts in other areas such as providing financing options or pre/post surgery services.
“Tani can be a win-win-win for everyone: we can provide affordable surgeries for patients, help surgeons achieve their dream to build their private practice, and provide clinics with additional surgeries in their day-to-day. With Tani, we have the opportunity to revolutionize how patients in LatAm view healthcare and how supported they feel throughout their journey. ” Natalie Copuroglu - Founder and CEO.
With this funding round, Tani will focus its efforts on refining its model to achieve product-market fit and enhancing its end-to-end healthcare experience for patients.
