African BusinessSun 17th May 2026Ilara is not trying to replace public healthcare or build hospitals. It is trying to make existing clinics work better.Rather than attempting to reinvent healthcare, Kenya-based Ilara Health is focused on a more practical challenge: equipping small private clinics with the diagnostic tools, financing and software they need to operate efficiently. In doing so, it is quietly building one of East Africa’s most significant primary healthcare networks.
Emilian Popa runs a healthtech company that does not behave like one.
While investors spent years debating whether African healthtech could scale sustainably, Ilara Health concentrated on a narrower and more practical problem: small private clinics lack diagnostic equipment because they cannot afford to finance it. The company’s response has been straightforward. It supplies clinics with medical equipment on credit, layers in software and data tools, and gradually turns fragmented operators into part of a functioning network.
The model is beginning to achieve meaningful scale. Ilara says it has now served more than two million patients across around 3,000 clinics in Kenya and Uganda, a segment long considered too fragmented and informal to organise effectively.
