With flexible capital and hands-on support from Afrishela, Welo Health is expanding access to healthcare while creating income opportunities for women nurses.

For many working people, seeking healthcare can come with an impossible choice: lose a day’s income while you spend hours waiting in a queue at a hospital or clinic, or put care off until later.

Zanele Abraham-Matome founded Welo Health in 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, after seeing how easily healthcare can become out of reach for working people. The South African healthtech startup combines digital health solutions with on-site human care, using technology and a network of nurses to make services such as virtual doctor consultations, medication delivery, and health check-ups easier to access at work and at home.

Today, Welo Health provides on-site and at-home healthcare, helping people access support in real time rather than waiting until a health concern becomes more serious. For Zanele, the work has always been about more than convenience. It is about creating a healthcare model that respects people’s time, circumstances and right to be treated with care.

“Dignity is employee healthcare at home and in the workplace. Patients get care in real time and in a dignified manner.”

– Zanele Abraham-Matome, Founder, Welo Health.

Welo Health’s model is powered by nurses who deliver care in workplaces and communities, supported by a technology platform that coordinates services and patient follow-ups. The company employs seven people, while its wider nurse network remains central to its growth. Creating meaningful work for others has become one of the most rewarding parts of building the business. “It feels really good being a job creator,” Zanele said. “It fills me with a sense of purpose and impact.”

The women nurses who make the model possible also feel that purpose. Many work through Welo Health’s flexible, on-demand network, creating additional income opportunities while delivering essential services to people who may otherwise struggle to access care.

“Our nurses are the engine that scales our growth. We aim to ensure their right to earn more and impact their communities is not overlooked.”

– Zanele Abraham-Matome, Founder, Welo Health.

Afrishela’s US$100,000 investment in Welo Health was structured as a revenue-based loan: flexible, non-dilutive capital designed to support growth without requiring Zanele to give up ownership of the business she built.

For Zanele, a woman founder building in a sector where quality, trust and compliance are essential, Afrishela’s flexible funding structure mattered deeply. “This partnership with Afrishela is more than just capital,” she said. “It is a vote of confidence in women-led innovation in healthcare.”

The funding has given Welo Health room to deepen its technology offering, reach more employees who are often excluded from traditional workplace healthcare arrangements, and prepare for its next stage of growth.

Afrishela’s support has also extended beyond finance. Through mentorship and investor-readiness support, the team has worked with Welo Health to strengthen the systems needed for future capital raising and market expansion.

“Afrishela complements the other great financiers we have worked with. The mentorship and investor readiness we have received from Afrishela puts us in good stead for our future raise.”

– Zanele Abraham-Matome, Founder, Welo Health.

The results are beginning to show in people’s daily lives. Welo Health has rolled out Healthcare at Home for ex-miners across six countries, bringing healthcare services closer to people with limited access.

The company has also reduced nurse payment turnaround time from 14 days to seven, a practical change that reflects its commitment to both accessible care and fairer income opportunities for the nurses who make that care possible. “Post-Afrishela, two wins we are proud of are the six-country rollout of Healthcare at Home for ex-miners, and reducing nurse payments from 14 days to seven,” Zanele said. “Scale and dignity, together.”

Andia Chakava, Managing Partner at Afrishela, described this as the kind of capital women founders need: responsive to business realities, flexible enough to support early growth, and paired with technical support that strengthens the company for its next opportunity.

“Capital designed for women founders is responsive and tailored to the needs of women-owned and led enterprises. It is patient enough to allow catalytic growth, and it recognises that women entrepreneurs often need capital wrapped with technical assistance support.”

– Andia Chakava, Managing Partner, Afrishela.

Scaling healthcare is not simple. For Zanele, one of the hardest parts has been ensuring that Welo Health continues to meet changing compliance requirements while building strong data-governance systems that protect the people it serves.

Her next priority is to build on Welo Health’s data capability and use artificial intelligence to help move healthcare from responding to illness towards preventing it.

“We want to focus more on the data aspects and how we use AI to move data into an intelligent layer that will enable preventative care at scale.”

– Zanele Abraham-Matome, Founder, Welo Health.

Jane Mbinya, Senior Investment Officer at Afrishela, said Welo Health’s progress reflects more than revenue growth. The business demonstrates the qualities investors look for in an early-growth company: strong margins, a scalable technology platform, market expansion potential, capable leadership, and measurable impact.

“Welo Health is demonstrating execution adaptability and resilience. Women-led businesses like Welo Health deliver measurable impact through women’s leadership, job creation and the communities in which they operate.”

– Jane Mbinya, Senior Investment Officer, Afrishela.

Welo Health is not only growing a company; it is also building a community. It shows what becomes possible when women founders are trusted with capital, supported with the right expertise, and given room to build solutions that improve lives.