Overview
- Alan has acquired Dakar-based digital health company Tanel, marking its first expansion into Africa and establishing operations in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire.
- Tanel covers approximately 70,000 people across more than 400 businesses and connects users with over 1,200 pharmacies and healthcare providers. The two companies aim to serve more than 1 mn people across Africa by 2030.
- The acquisition gives Alan access to a health insurance market estimated at nearly €600 mn, growing around 10% annually, while providing Tanel with technology and resources to expand its services.
French insurtech Alan has completed the acquisition of Tanel, a Senegal-based digital health company operating in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire, marking the French health insurer’s first expansion into Africa and providing an established platform for growth across the continent.
Announced in Dakar on September 2, 2026, the transaction brings together Alan’s insurance technology and preventive healthcare services with Tanel’s local operating experience, healthcare provider network and corporate customer relationships. Financial terms were not disclosed.
The acquisition also represents an exit for investors in Tanel, a company founded in 2021 that has developed digital infrastructure to simplify healthcare coverage administration and access to medical services in Francophone West Africa.
Tanel currently covers approximately 70,000 people through more than 400 corporate clients and connects users to a network of over 1,200 pharmacies and healthcare providers.
The companies plan to expand coverage to more than 1 mn people across Africa by 2030, initially strengthening their presence in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire before entering English-speaking markets in West and East Africa.
Alan enters African health insurance market through Tanel acquisition
Founded in 2021 by Mouhamed Ndoye and Makhtar Diop, Tanel was established to address inefficiencies in employee healthcare coverage, particularly the reliance on fragmented administrative processes and paper-based systems.
The company initially developed pharmacy management software before expanding into a digital health platform serving businesses, employees and individual users.
Its technology enables employers to administer health benefits digitally, while giving covered individuals greater visibility over their entitlements and simpler access to pharmacies and medical providers.
The platform also supports benefit tracking and the wider patient journey, with the objective of improving transparency and reducing administrative complexity in healthcare delivery.
Alan first invested in Tanel during its seed funding round in 2024. The investment led to an ongoing relationship between the companies, allowing Alan to evaluate Tanel’s technology, operational capabilities and understanding of local healthcare systems.
That relationship provided the foundation for the acquisition, giving Alan an established operating business rather than requiring it to build local infrastructure and provider relationships independently.
Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire represent the initial markets for the expansion. According to the companies, their combined health insurance market is estimated at nearly €600 mn and is growing by approximately 10% annually.
Alan intends to apply its existing technology to Tanel’s local network, developing additional services while adapting its insurance and healthcare model to the regulatory requirements and customer needs of African markets.
The company sees Tanel’s relationships with employers, healthcare professionals, pharmacies and regulators as an important part of its entry strategy.
Preventive healthcare and telehealth services form expansion strategy
The integration will initially concentrate on connecting the two companies’ products, improving the digital patient journey and introducing additional preventive healthcare services.
Tanel’s existing customers and partners will continue to work with the local team while gaining access to services developed by Alan, including telehealth and preventive healthcare support.
The companies also intend to improve the accessibility and affordability of healthcare through further development of the digital infrastructure connecting patients, employers and medical providers.
Alan has developed its business around a model combining health insurance, preventive services, customer support and artificial intelligence. Its approach seeks to help members manage their health before medical conditions emerge or existing problems become more serious.
The insurer currently serves more than 1.2 mn members across France, Spain, Belgium and Canada. The Tanel acquisition extends that operating model into Africa for the first time.
Alan is an independent insurance company authorized by France’s Autorité de contrôle prudentiel et de résolution (ACPR). Its integrated health offering includes physical and mental health support, access to healthcare professionals through its platform and customer service available seven days a week.
Combining these capabilities with Tanel’s established digital services will allow the businesses to introduce additional health products while maintaining local delivery and customer relationships.
Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, CEO and co-founder of Alan, said the acquisition reflects the need to combine technology with practical knowledge of individual healthcare markets.
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.
Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve, CEO and co-founder of Alan
“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.”
Tanel founders to lead Alan’s African operations
Mouhamed Ndoye and Makhtar Diop will remain responsible for Tanel’s operations and lead Alan’s development across Africa, supported by the insurer’s international teams.
The entire Tanel team will also remain in place, preserving the company’s operating experience and existing relationships with businesses, healthcare providers and other local partners.
This management structure is intended to maintain continuity as Alan introduces its technology and additional services.
The founders said developing Tanel required the company to address gaps in the healthcare infrastructure needed to deliver its initial products.
“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,” Ndoye and Diop said.
Their continued leadership will give Alan access to the local operating knowledge developed since Tanel’s launch, including its experience managing pharmacy relationships and digitizing health coverage administration.
The expansion strategy calls for a gradual increase in geographical coverage, beginning with improvements to existing services in Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire before entering additional African markets.
Tanel acquisition provides exit for African healthtech investors
The transaction also provides an exit for Tanel’s founders and investors, including Ventures Platform, AAIC Investment and individual backers Dr Mussaad M. Al-Razouki, Alyune-Blondin Diop and Charles ‘Chuck’ Slaughter.
The deal is particularly relevant to Francophone Africa’s healthtech investment market, where exits remain relatively uncommon, according to Ventures Platform.
Dotun Olowoporoku, managing partner at Ventures Platform, said the acquisition demonstrates the commercial potential of locally developed healthcare technology businesses.
“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,” Olowoporoku said.
The longer-term expansion into Anglophone West and East Africa will be built around the companies’ target of covering more than 1 mn people across the continent by 2030, with Tanel’s founders continuing to oversee the African business.
