Alan buys Tanel to enter African health market

French health insurance start-up Alan has acquired Dakar-based digital health company Tanel, giving the Paris-based group its first foothold in Africa and adding operations in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.

The transaction, announced on September 2, brings Tanel’s approximately 70,000 covered lives and more than 400 corporate customers into Alan’s international network. Financial terms were not disclosed. Alan said Tanel’s existing team would remain in place while the two companies integrate products and expand healthcare services.

Tanel co-founders Mouhamed Ndoye and Makhtar Diop will continue to lead the business and oversee Alan’s development in Africa. The combined group plans to strengthen its position in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire before moving into English-speaking markets in West and East Africa, with a target of covering more than one million people across Africa by 2030.

Tanel, founded in 2021, developed digital systems for companies managing employee health benefits in markets where administration has often relied heavily on fragmented and paper-based processes. Its platform allows employers to manage coverage while giving workers and individuals access to information on benefits, pharmacies and healthcare providers.

The company says its network now includes more than 1,200 pharmacies and healthcare providers across Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire. Alan first invested in Tanel during a seed funding round in 2024, giving it an established relationship with the founders before the acquisition.

Alan said the deal would allow Tanel users to gain access over time to services including telehealth and preventive healthcare support. Initial integration work will focus on connecting the companies’ products, improving the digital patient journey and adding Alan’s prevention-oriented services to Tanel’s platform.

Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, Alan’s chief executive and co-founder, said technology could broaden access to healthcare only when combined with teams that understood local markets. He said Tanel had built relationships with users, employers, healthcare providers and regulators in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, giving Alan a base for further expansion.

Ndoye and Diop said joining Alan would provide additional technology and resources to accelerate Tanel’s development. They said the company had initially focused on pharmacy infrastructure before extending its systems across the patient journey as it sought to simplify access to health coverage and care.

Alan currently serves more than 1.2 million members across France, Spain, Belgium and Canada and works with more than 37,000 companies, as well as self-employed workers and retirees. The company combines health insurance with prevention tools, support services, telehealth and artificial intelligence-based products.

The purchase extends Alan beyond the four countries where it had previously built its insurance and digital health operations, and places Africa alongside Europe and Canada in its geographic footprint. Alan said its approach in the new markets would combine insurance, prevention and support rather than simply transfer a European product unchanged. The company said local knowledge of healthcare systems, regulation and customer needs was central to the decision to buy Tanel, whose founders had spent several years building provider connections and digital administration tools in the two West African markets.

Its African move follows a €480 million Series G financing round led by Prosus in June, which valued Alan at €5.5 billion. Existing investors Teachers’ Venture Growth and Index Ventures also participated, alongside new investor Dara Holdings. Alan said the financing would support international growth and further development of its technology.

The company reported annual recurring revenue of more than €800 million in 2026. It has reached profitability in France but remains focused on investment and expansion across its wider business.

Alan estimates the health insurance market in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire at nearly €600 million, growing at about 10 per cent annually. The company is using Tanel’s existing operations, regulatory knowledge and provider relationships rather than building its African presence from scratch.

The acquisition also gives Tanel’s founders and investors an exit. Investors identified by the company include Ventures Platform and AAIC Investment, together with several angel investors.