Alan Acquires Tanel in First Move into Africa

Alan, the global prevention insurance player, has finalised its acquisition of Tanel, a Dakar-based digital health company operating in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. The deal marks Alan’s first move into Africa and a notable exit for Francophone Africa’s healthtech ecosystem.

Tanel was launched in 2021 by Mouhamed Ndoye and Makhtar Diop to solve the challenge of managing employee health coverage through fragmented, largely paper-based systems. The company provides digital tools for businesses to manage employee health coverage, while giving employees and individuals simpler access to care and greater visibility over their health coverage. With operations in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, the company now covers approximately 70,000 members across more than 400 companies and connects users to a network of over 1,200 pharmacies and healthcare providers.

Alan first invested in Tanel during its 2024 seed round, and has worked closely with the founders since. The relationship gave Alan a direct view of Tanel’s technology, local operating knowledge and execution, while both teams built a shared understanding of how digital tools can make healthcare simpler to access and more preventive. The acquisition gives Alan an established entry into sub-Saharan Africa through a team that understands the healthcare systems, regulations and customer needs of its markets.

For Tanel, joining Alan provides additional technology, product experience and resources to improve its services and expand into more markets. Together, Alan and Tanel plan to reach more than one million members across Africa by 2030, strengthening operations in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire before expanding into Anglophone markets across West and East Africa. Users and partners will continue to work with Tanel’s existing team while gaining access to new services, including telehealth and preventive healthcare support. The teams will initially focus on integrating their products, improving the digital patient journey and adding Alan’s preventive health services to the platform.

Alan has spent years building a model that combines  prevention and health insurance, helping people act earlier to protect their long-term health. More than 1.2 million members now use Alan across France, Spain, Belgium and Canada, and this acquisition marks the first time it will bring the operating model to Africa. Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire give Alan a strategic starting point, with a health insurance market estimated at nearly €600 million and growing by around 10% a year. Building on Tanel’s on-the-ground expertise and healthcare partnerships, Alan will roll out its technology to offer new health services and establish a lasting presence in Africa.

Speaking on the acquisition, Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, CEO and co-founder of Alan, said: “Healthcare systems are evolving all over the world, but the expectations remain the same: easier access to care and support before a health problem becomes more serious. Technology can help deliver that at scale, but it has to be paired with teams that understand their markets. Tanel has done the hard work of building relationships with users, companies, healthcare providers and regulators in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. Combining that knowledge with Alan’s platform gives us a strong base from which to build in Africa and, together, deliver on a mission we deeply believe in: health can’t wait.”

Mouhamed Ndoye and Makhtar Diop will continue to lead Tanel’s operations and Alan’s development in Africa, supported by Alan’s international teams. Tanel’s full team will remain, preserving the relationships, operating experience and market knowledge behind the company’s growth.

Mouhamed Ndoye and Makhtar Diop, co-founders of Tanel, added: “When we started Tanel, we quickly realised that much of the healthcare infrastructure we needed was missing. Building the company felt like trying to build cars where the roads did not yet exist, so we began creating the infrastructure ourselves – first for pharmacies and then across the full patient journey, to give businesses and their employees simpler, more transparent access to care. Alan has backed us since 2024 and understands both the problem we are solving and the size of the opportunity. Joining forces gives us more technology and resources to move faster.”

The transaction also provides an exit for Tanel’s founders and investors, including Ventures Platform, AAIC Investment, and angels such as Dr Mussaad M. Al-Razouki, Alyune-Blondin Diop, and Charles ‘Chuck’ Slaughter.

Dotun Olowoporoku, Managing Partner at Ventures Platform, said: “African tech still sees too few exits, particularly in Francophone Africa, which makes this deal an important milestone for the ecosystem. Ventures Platform backed Tanel early, when Mouhamed and Makhtar were building a company grounded in the realities of healthcare delivery in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. Alan’s acquisition validates their vision and demonstrates the potential for ambitious, locally built companies to create lasting value. We believe the deal will encourage more investors to back founders building essential services across Africa.”