<ul><li>UAE-based fintech KLAIM, has raised a $5 million Seed round from Knuru Capital, with plans to increase this to over $30 million by way of a pool of Sharia-compliant investors.</li><li>Founded in 2020 by Karim Dakki and Ghafoor Ahmad, KLAIM is a fintech dedicated to aiding healthcare SMEs by providing them with working capital to ease their cash flow burden.</li><li>The funding will be used to support KLAIM’s medical claims receivable purchasing solution, which allows healthcare providers to access working capital by selling their insurance claims that are pending payment and typically settled between 60 and 112 days.</li></ul>Press release:Venture investor firm Knuru Capital announces that it will be providing KLAIM with a $5 million seed investment into an innovative securitised financing structure to help scale its receivable purchase operations in the UAE. KLAIM is a fintech company dedicated to healthcare that provides working capital to small and mid-size healthcare providers to ease their cash flow burden.Through this deal, Knuru will provide an initial commitment with plans to increase this to over $30 million by way of a pool of Sharia-compliant investors. The funding will be used to support KLAIM’s medical claims receivable purchasing solution, which allows healthcare providers to quickly access working capital by selling their insurance claims that are pending payment and typically settled between 60 and 112 days.Previously, KLAIM has announced working on an alternative Sharia-compliant fund provided by Al-Khair Capital which is currently under regulatory approval by CMA in Saudi. The company is poised to scale its operations with further institutional debt and Series A equity financing in the very near term. This innovative financing structure led by Knuru Capital is one of the first of its kind in the UAE and a landmark expansion phase for KLAIM, which aims to bring its advanced healthcare financing solution to the rest of the region.This capital solution is particularly targeted at small and mid-sized healthcare providers that are not served by traditional lending businesses. In the UAE alone, over 35 small and medium-sized healthcare providers have been part of KLAIM's beta program and currently benefit from KLAIM’s advanced working capital solution. KLAIM's innovative products give these providers visibility and freedom to expand their healthcare practice and improve the quality of care they can offer, all without relying on an unpredictable claim reimbursement process that they are very dependent on today. Claims payments from insurance companies to healthcare facilities can take anywhere between 60 and 112 days, which directly affects all types of operations of the medical facility.“This financing will allow us to scale and help many more healthcare facilities. Financial stability of healthcare providers is crucial to the quality of their healthcare delivery”, says Karim Dakki, CEO of KLAIM. “After one year since we did our first medical claim purchase transaction, we have now proven the business model and built a track record that institutional investors such as Knuru are very comfortable with. We are ready to scale with large debt facilities or fund structures. The capital provided by Knuru Capital will help us further contribute to this stability, ensuring that people in the UAE and across the GCC have access to better and diversified healthcare”.For Knuru, this funding is an opportunity to continue to accomplish its goal of helping Fintech companies scale with access to smart capital so they can further improve the lives of their target market. In this case, Knuru is excited about the opportunity to participate in the improvement of the quality of healthcare in the GCC.“We are proud to be partnering with KLAIM in leading digitization of healthcare claims management and financing in the GCC”, says Alain Dib, CEO of Knuru Capital. “This combination of KLAIM’s claim management software and a capital solution will greatly help SME healthcare in managing their payments and improve cash flow management and focus on delivering excellence in healthcare services”.Medical claim market in the UAE alone is $5.4 billion annually. It is estimated that $1-1.5 billion of providers' receivables are currently held with insurance companies that KLAIM is trying to release in the market.As healthcare providers continue to suffer from a tedious claims payment process and inaccessible and inflexible bank lending, the superiority of medical receivables financing will continue to grow. This rising demand will be exacerbated by the growing importance of the insurance sector for health delivery and the now-established link between financial stability and the quality of healthcare.Against this backdrop, KLAIM, together with its investment partners is in the perfect position to support healthcare providers and ensure that cash flow problems do not hold back healthcare in the GCC.

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Venture investor firm Knuru Capital announces that it will be providing KLAIM with a $5 million seed investment into an innovative securitised financing structure to help scale its receivable purchase operations in the UAE.

KLAIM raises $5 million Seed from Knuru Capital with plans to increase round to $30 million

Karim Dakki, Co-Founder &amp; CEO, Ghafoor Ahmad, Co-Founder &amp; CRO, KLAIM&nbsp;The financial stability of healthcare providers is threatened by rejected medical claims and delayed payments – KLAIM, the first fintech in the region dedicated to improving the cash flow of healthcare providers, is aiming to directly tackle this problem by providing the advanced healthcare financing and automated RCM solutions that small and medium-sized healthcare providers so critically need.&nbsp;<h3>An urgent checkup for healthcare RCM&nbsp;</h3>Delay in the processing of medical claims is one of the most pervasive hurdles that healthcare providers in the MENA region face today. In the UAE, it takes between 112 and 270 days for healthcare insurers to receive cash for services rendered through submitted medical claims. Yet, these providers must still lay out cash to pay salaries, utilities, and rent, as well as maintain equipment and facilities, and plan for future growth and expansion.In particular, smaller providers most often find themselves in precarious financial straits due to these delays since they don’t easily qualify for bank loans. For example, even though SMEs constitute 94% of the UAE economy, they only received 8.1% of all bank loans in the first quarter of 2020.Consequently, smaller healthcare providers struggle to meet their operational expenses and situations like salary delay, salary reduction, staff layoffs, extended ‘vacations,’ and business closure are not uncommon.If health is wealth, and the welfare of hundreds and thousands of people depend on the continuous and proper functioning of these healthcare providers, then this is an issue that requires widespread attention and, in particular, the technological and financial resources that KLAIM has deployed.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Medical claims for cash: Solving the cash flow problems of healthcare providers&nbsp;</h3>KLAIM identified this problem as early as 2019 and decided to solve it by introducing an advanced healthcare financing solution. Instead of waiting for between 112 and 270 days to receive cash for medical claims, KLAIM offers to purchase those claims and pay out cash within seven days for a small financing fee. Consequently, healthcare providers can quickly and easily access the cash they need to meet their operational expenses within a week.By deploying $500 million of working capital into the healthcare industry, KLAIM’s goal is to become the ATM of the industry, whereby providers will be able to access the cash they need without going through the hassle and headaches of securing loans from banks or waiting for tardy insurers.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Repairing the broken RCM system with emerging technology</h3>There is another way that broken RCM affects the financial stability of healthcare providers: the revenue that is lost due to a high rate of medical claims rejection. In the UAE, 30% of new medical claims and 15% of resubmitted claims are rejected, according to Aster DM Healthcare, a private healthcare conglomerate.KLAIM is solving this knock-on problem by building an automated and data-driven RCM that will eliminate human error and reduce claims rejections.While KLAIM’s advanced financing solution can provide cash within seven days, it only does so for claims that have a high probability of being accepted and paid by insurers. Therefore, if healthcare providers continue to accumulate faulty claims that will most likely be rejected, they will still be unable to access the cash they need for operations. The more their claims are rejected, the more revenue they lose, and the greater their financial difficulties could become.&nbsp;KLAIM has recognised the prevalence of medical claims rejections and started to build a platform that will improve RCM so that medical claim rejections, and the consequent revenue loss, can be reduced to the barest minimum. Thankfully, 86% of medical claims rejections are avoidable.&nbsp;This automated RCM platform will clean up human errors by automating medical billing, medical coding, preauthorization, eligibility check, claims submission, and claims resubmission, among other tasks. Moreover, the new platform will employ big data and artificial intelligence to help healthcare providers predict which medical claims will be rejected so they can quickly rework them before submitting to the insurers.&nbsp;On this platform, medical claims rejections will be reduced and providers will increase their revenue by cutting off previous revenue losses. “The error that a human makes while submitting these claims costs them a lot of money and results in 15% revenue loss,” says Dakki. “This can be prevented by our fully automated platform that takes care of everything so that clients can just focus on providing the best healthcare to the patient without doing this administration job.”&nbsp;There are already more than 300 healthcare providers who have signed up for KLAIM’s platform in anticipation of its full launch. As of today, KLAIM has a database of more than 12 million medical claims that can be used for predictive analytics.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>From a local company to a regional force</h3>KLAIM was founded in 2019 by two people working out of the kitchen cabinet of a co-working space; now, the company is a team of 65 dedicated individuals. While KLAIM started out as a Dubai-based company concerned about the UAE market, its focus has also grown larger and now includes a regional footprint that extends to Saudi Arabia and Oman.&nbsp;Over the past 12 months, KLAIM has raised $2.8 million in equity and received numerous milestones and awards, including being named as one of the few start-ups to receive a term sheet from a bank, securing a partnership with Etisalat, being shortlisted as one of the top B2B Technology Start-ups of the year by Gulf Capital SME and receiving the KPMG Innovation Award.&nbsp;According to the CEO, this rapid progress has resulted from their commitment to client satisfaction and the trust the company has won for them: “I think trust is the most important factor, especially when we deal with money. If you serve them, be there with them when they need you, and you go out of your way to make sure that you are helping your clients to succeed and fulfil their requirements, that is the key. Satisfying the customer and serving the client in a way which solves their problems is the most important thing.”&nbsp;<h3>Securing the future with a culture of innovation</h3>KLAIM is already gaining a positive response in the market through its high-demand and innovative financing services. Not resting on its laurels, the company further aims to develop revolutionary products for its clients going into the years ahead.&nbsp;“We as founders want to make sure that we commit and deliver,” said Dakki. “We want to make sure that we are not doing repeated things that have been done in the past. We don’t want it to be a journal or a legacy healthcare financing solution. We want to make sure that we are completely latest technology-driven, with full automation, with something that the clients have never experienced before. In essence, we’re like an Apple product for healthcare providers in the MENA region. Quality, continuous innovation, and consistent improvement are three of our principal values.”&nbsp;Offering advanced financing solutions and an automated and data-driven RCM platform are only the beginning. Having established a dedicated and results-oriented culture, KLAIM is now looking to solve more problems at the forefront of the healthcare industry in the MENA region and beyond.&nbsp;

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KLAIM: Improving profitability and cash flow for healthcare providers 

By becoming an intermediary in the traditional insurance payment cycle, Klaim is addressing a financial issue that has long been plaguing healthcare providers in the MENA region: delayed and/or rejected claim payments.&nbsp;When it comes to the financial stability of healthcare providers in the MENA region, there is one particular issue that has long proven to be a pain point for them: delayed and/or rejected insurance claim payments. In fact, as per research done by UAE-based fintech firm <a href="https://klaim.ai/">Klaim</a>, it takes between 112 and 270 days for healthcare insurers to receive cash for services that are only available through submitted medical claims. "Additionally, between 15% and 30% of medical claims in the UAE are rejected by insurers and must be resubmitted for processing," says Karim Dakki, co-founder and CEO, Klaim. "Often when claims are rejected, the second submission will be ignored. Insurance companies limit entry into their network and negotiate very low rates- a reality that further harms healthcare providers already having to deal with payment delays and complex medical claims processing."&nbsp;Launched in 2019, Klaim aims to address this issue by becoming an intermediary in the traditional payment cycle. Through this approach, KLAIM then enables quick cash replenishment of a medical entity's insurance claims. But before delving into how this is achieved, it is good to understand the gravity of the core problem. "The payment of insurance claims is a cumulative process, which means it may take up to two years before some claims turn to cash," explains Dakki. "This rate of rejection of medical claims makes it difficult for the healthcare industry to sustain its growth and meet analysts' high expectations." In fact, the ripple effect of what seems to primarily be a finance-related issue for medical firms, is one that can be directly felt by the patients too, says Dakki. "Many healthcare providers, especially small ones and hospitals who can't access business loans, are facing persistent cash flow challenges that threaten their existence, and, sometimes, put the patients at risk," he points out.&nbsp;The good news, however, is that this problem is solvable. "Although 15%-30% of new claims and 15% of resubmitted claims are rejected, 86% of these claim denials can be avoided," says Dakki. "The lack of better managerial and processing systems is still causing healthcare providers to lose revenue, contributing to the overall cash flow problem." And this is exactly where his enterprise's offering comes in. "At Klaim, we provide access to working capital and a better claim management platform, all under one umbrella," explains Dakki. "Our objective is to help healthcare providers get paid faster for their medical claims. We believe the only way to do this is to have a combination of technology, a claim management platform with automation, and also extend working capital to healthcare providers."&nbsp;Related: <a href="http://entm.ag/YrLb5X">Lucia Clinic Founder Dr. Radmila Lukian On How She Built One Of Dubai's Foremost Cosmetic Medicine Centers</a>&nbsp;The first step in this combined process involves healthcare providers to create an account with Klaim, following which the entity's financial performance will be evaluated. After that, once a healthcare provider signs a contract with Klaim, it becomes eligible to receive medical claim payments in cash within seven days. Here, Klaim charges a processing fee, which is calculated as a percentage of the value of a given claim. "We use technology to assess and buy claims that have a very good chance of being paid by the insurer (low-risk claims), and typically reject ones that don't have such chances," explains Dakki. "With this advanced payment system, healthcare providers can cash in on their medical claims quickly, giving them the positive cash flow and working capital they need to support growing operations." &nbsp;

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Enabling Efficiency: Dubai-Based Klaim Is Helping MENA's Healthcare Providers Do Away With Delayed Medical Insurance Claim Payments

UAE-based fintech firm <a href="https://klaim.ai/">Klaim</a> has raised US$5 million in a seed investment round led by Dubai-headquartered venture capital and private equity firm <a href="https://www.knuru.com/">Knuru Capital</a>. The funding was done through a securitized financing structure -said to be one of the first of its kind in the UAE- that saw Klaim initially receive an amount of $5 million. The total amount will eventually be raised to $30 million by way of a pool of Shari'ah-compliant investors.&nbsp;Launched in 2019, Klaim was created with the singular purpose of <a href="https://entm.ag/JFGKIe">solving delayed and/or rejected insurance claim payments for medical providers</a> in the UAE. Since its launch, the startup has already managed claims worth over AED700 million, and supported more than 100 medical entities -across the UAE and Saudi Arabia- with their working capital woes. "So far, we have also saved two healthcare facilities from bankruptcy," reveals Karim Dakki, co-founder and CEO of Klaim. "One of the main effects [of Klaim's services] that we've noticed is that our clients become more efficient internally in submitting the claims. We also see time reduced from 30 days, for a visit to claim submission, to five to 15 days now. Some of them take even less than five days. This translates into higher internal efficiencies and lowers investments in working capital and a better quality of healthcare services as the result."&nbsp;On his part, Alain Dib, CEO of Knuru Capital, expressed that this round aligned with his enterprise's goal of helping fintech companies scale with access to smart capital. "This combination of KLAIM's claim management software and capital solution will greatly help SME healthcare in managing their payments and improve cash flow management and focus on delivering excellence in healthcare services," Dib added. And with this fresh influx of capital, Dakki hopes to scale Klaim's services across the country, while also introducing newer features.&nbsp;&nbsp;"We typically raise two types of capital: one is operational capital to grow the business and build the technology, while the other is for buying out receivables and injecting them into the sector," Dakki explains. "So for the first one, our goal is to continue spending a significant amount of money in scaling our revenue-related capabilities, which are sales and marketing. And then on the technology side, we want to bring under one umbrella a unified platform that can automate most of the back-office operations for health care facilities." Dakki also points out that the decisions from this point onwards will require a keen focus on new regulatory requirements. "The key area is the evolution of regulation," Dakki says. "So far, we've been focusing on business-to-business (B2B) working capital products, but now we intend to upgrade our licenses and start pushing forward with a business-to-consumer (B2C) program that will allow us to go into Asia and Africa."&nbsp;That Klaim's new goals come in the midst of the fintech industry receiving an increasing number of investments cannot be overlooked, of course. In 2021, alone, at least $131 billion was invested into fintech startups across the globe, <a href="https://news.crunchbase.com/fintech-ecommerce/financial-services-venture-funding-startups-down-2022/">as per a Crunchbase report</a>. The same study shows that although the number of venture capital (VC) investments progressively dropped in every quarter of 2022, fintech still remains one of the highest funded sectors. Dakki himself is quick to note the same.&nbsp;&nbsp;"From 2020 to 2021 fintech venture investment grew by more than 175%," he states. "But post-pandemic we've seen an increase in VC investment in health fintech too. In 2019, digital health saw $7.7 billion in VC investment, and that number rose to $14.6 billion in 2020. There was a massive realization that there is a lot that needs to be done on the healthcare front and its digitization, which is an attractive investment opportunity. For Klaim, in particular, there is a high interest because it's at the crossroads of finance and healthcare. Very few startups are targeting that space. In addition, we have proven our model, and the company is now ready for Series A."And the increased interest from investors has certainly helped Klaim explore untapped markets.&nbsp;&nbsp;"The initial wave of opportunities that we saw in the healthcare sector that received quite a bit of investment is appointments/online booking systems related to applications such as Okadoc and Veezeeta," Dakki explains. "But we started seeing another wave of opportunities in different sectors such as in the pharmacy space, chronic disease management, clinical decision systems, healthcare data, patient records, among other things, interoperability automation, admin and clinical tasks, and documentation."&nbsp;But as the funding winter continues and the number of investments continue to stagnate (as stated earlier), Karim advises entrepreneurs not to lose heart. "Reduce your expenditure and focus on profitability early on, and focus on activities that are going to generate your cash as early as possible," he advises. "Also ensure to keep visibility of the startup to bring attention and awareness. Then convert this awareness and incoming leads of investors into actual deals!"&nbsp;Moving into 2023, Dakki hopes to be at the forefront of digitally transforming medical billing in the Middle East. "To force implement our vision and impact more healthcare facilities, we are planning to deploy $100 million of capital by the end of 2023, with 60% going into Saudi and 40% to the UAE, and then close a successful Series A," he reveals.&nbsp;&nbsp;"I think the most powerful part has been realizing that we are shaping the way the industry is doing its medical billing and being able to help. We are in a sector that is impacting all of us. I think that's the most gratifying part."

"We Got Funded!" Dubai-Based Healthcare Fintech Startup Klaim Set To Receive US$30 Million Funding To Scale Across The Region

The event included more than 250 healthcare professionals in attendance including owners, CEOs, chairpersons, and medical directors of hospitals, dental clinics, pharmacies, and medical centres from the region&nbsp;KLAIM, a fintech company committed to improving the revenue cycle management of healthcare providers, recently organised an Iftar gala dinner for C-level managers and other healthcare professionals at The Address Boulevard in Downtown Dubai to discuss ways to improve the healthcare industry in the country.&nbsp;The event was attended by over 250 healthcare leaders, including key decision makers such as owners, CEOs, chairpersons, and medical directors from various hospitals, dental clinics, pharmacies, and medical centres. The institutions included Medcare, Saudi German Hospital, Emirates European Hospital, Emirates Hospitals Group, and Al Futtaim Healthcare, among others, which gathered in an atmosphere especially made for networking, accompanied by authentic cuisine and Arabic music to celebrate the holiday occasion.&nbsp;Karim Dakki, CEO, KLAIM opened thedinner with a speech that outlined the sizable efforts that healthcare providers have put into the industry, transforming the UAE into a global leader in the improvement of healthcare services. Dakki emphasised that the nation’s reputation in raising the bar for quality healthcare could not be materialised without the commitment, creativity, and innovation of the healthcare providers in attendance.Dakki also went on to highlight the mission for the healthcare industry going forward. In particular, this mission included how KLAIM is transforming healthcare RCM through its RCM 2.0 platforms that seek to make RCM more efficient, as well as its healthcare advanced financing solution that seeks to improve the cash flow of providers.&nbsp;During an interactive Q&amp;A session, KLAIM emphasised that medical claim denial rates need to be lowered, with 30 per cent of new claims and 15 per cent of resubmitted claims being rejected in the UAE, according to Aster DM Healthcare. This is an issue that stands out as a major hurdle for sustainable healthcare industry growth, and emerging technology in automation can help RCM teams overcome this challenge.&nbsp;The networking opportunities after the Q&amp;A was the highlight of the Iftar gala dinner, allowing various healthcare leaders and stakeholders to exchange ideas about how to improve their cash flow and transform their RCM for more profitability. New relationships were formed, new ideas were discussed, and new partnerships were envisaged. "The healthcare industry in the GCC has huge potential that can be explored if various healthcare providers can come together to share ideas and work together towards common goals. We hope this event will be the beginning of such idea-sharing and cooperation," Dakki said.&nbsp;Due to the success of the event, KLAIM is now looking to organise more such events to unite the healthcare community in the UAE, and, very soon, the entire GCC. The global healthcare industry is striving to reduce healthcare costs, improve healthcare outcomes for patients, and enhance healthcare access. None of these goals are achievable without ensuring that healthcare providers remain sustainably profitable. The coming together of some of the brightest minds in the industry will unearth various creative and innovative ways to improve the performance of healthcare providers as a condition for reducing healthcare cost, improving healthcare outcomes, and enhancing healthcare access. &nbsp;

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KLAIM unites 250 healthcare leaders in first-ever Iftar dinner

<a href="https://www.argaam.com/en/tadawul/tasi/alkhair-capital">Alkhair Capital</a> Saudi Arabia, a financial institute licensed by the Capital Market Authority and headquartered in Riyadh, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with KLAIM HOLDINGS LIMITED, a fintech specialized in buying medical claims to provide working capital to healthcare providers, to launch investment products with the aim of financing purchase of uncollected medical insurance claims from insurance companies.&nbsp;Through this new partnership, Alkhair Capital aims to provide KLAIM with up to $50 million to serve more healthcare providers across the MENA region. Recognizing the cash flow difficulties faced by a large number of hospitals and medical clinics, whose waiting period ranges from 112 days on average to 270 days in some cases to collect financial claims from insurance companies, KLAIM has launched an electronic service to purchase medical claims and pay them in cash within seven days.&nbsp;Mr. Khalid Al-Mulhem, Managing Director and CEO of Alkhair Capital Saudi Arabia, said: “In light of the challenges faced by the healthcare sector related to cash flows from medical insurance service providers, KLAIM has effectively found the best innovative solutions to these challenges. We believe in the ability of these solutions to revolutionise the MENA region’s healthcare and fintech industry and we are delighted to give our investors an opportunity to invest in this new revolution and support the growth of fintech and healthcare.”&nbsp;Mr. Karim Dakki, CEO of “KLAIM” added: “This advanced financing service for healthcare providers is proving to meet high pent-up demand across the GCC, leading KLAIM to broaden its regional footprint. “We are excited that this partnership with Alkhair Capital is coming on the heels of our expansion into Saudi Arabia and Oman. The growth and prosperity of the healthcare sector depends on the financial stability of healthcare providers, and we are pleased that through this partnership, we can facilitate collection, provide the necessary cash flow and help more healthcare providers achieve this stability."&nbsp;This partnership provides Alkhair Capital with an opportunity to provide its investors with new products to diversify their Shariah-compliant options and investments in the thriving healthcare sector in the region using latest financial technology trends based on data-driven analysis and artificial intelligence solutions in revenue cycle management.&nbsp;The fact that insurers take between 112 and 270 days to process and release payments for medical claims has been a huge hurdle to growth for healthcare providers in the region. Large healthcare providers lament the high cost of servicing the loans they have to take from banks to keep up with their operational cost, while the smaller ones are left stranded due to the difficulty of getting access to those loans.&nbsp;A recent MEA Home Healthcare Market report expects that the MENA region’s healthcare industry will grow by 7.7% CAGR between 2021 and 2026. The partnership between Alkhair Capital and KLAIM, and other such future partnerships, will help to reduce the cash flow strain that is threatening to stunt the growth of healthcare providers so that the overall industry can achieve its full potential.&nbsp;About Alkhair Capital Saudi Arabia&nbsp;Alkhair Capital Saudi Arabia, a financial market institution licensed by the Capital Market Authority with License No. 08120-37 dated 17/11/2008, to practice the activity of dealing and custody, managing investments, operating funds, arranging, and providing advice in securities business in accordance with the provisions of Islamic Sharia. Alkhair Capital Saudi Arabia is a closed joint-stock company according to the regulations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and its paid-in capital is 1 billion Saudi riyals.<a href="https://alkhaircapital.com.sa/">https://alkhaircapital.com.sa</a>&nbsp;About KLAIM&nbsp;KLAIM is a fintech company committed to improving the Revenue Cycle Management (RCM) of healthcare providers in the MENA region. It does this through its advanced financing solution, where it buys medical claims for cash within seven days, and its RCM automation software that is preparing for launch. Launched in 2019 as a UAE-based company, KLAIM is now expanding its reach to other MENA countries, such as Saudi Arabia and Oman.<a href="https://klaim.ai/">https://klaim.ai</a>

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Alkhair Capital signs MoU with KLAIM to launch $50 mln investment products to support healthcare providers in MENA

<h2 style="margin-left:0px;">Sharia-compliant investment vehicle will target companies employing artificial intelligence to bolster healthcare providers</h2>&nbsp; Alkhair Capital, an <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2023/07/19/nomura-expands-wealth-management-business-in-dubai-with-new-difc-office/">asset management</a> and investment banking company, has launched a $100 million fund to invest in healthcare technology ventures as it looks to boost the portfolio of its investments.&nbsp;The <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2023/08/01/difc-posts-23-rise-in-companies-joining-financial-centre-in-first-half-of-2023/">Dubai International Financial Centre</a>-domiciled Sharia-compliant investment fund will target companies that are “harnessing cutting-edge artificial intelligence to bolster <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/technology/2022/07/07/digital-health-adoption-to-unlock-230bn-market-globally-over-next-five-years/">healthcare providers</a>”, it said in a statement on Monday.&nbsp;Designed as an open-ended fund, the investment vehicle aims to provide liquidity to target companies to boost their growth.&nbsp;“The healthcare sector is experiencing remarkable growth, propelled by the region's expanding senior citizen population, rising life expectancy and a surge in lifestyle diseases,” Naveed Aurakzai, chief executive of Alkhair Capital Dubai, said.&nbsp;“This surge has led to significant challenges, including insufficient infrastructure, higher medical claim settlements and liquidity constraints due to extended working capital cycles.”&nbsp;The new investment vehicle will play “a pivotal role in addressing liquidity challenges that are “hampering the profitability and expansion of medical facilities”, he added.&nbsp;The UAE health sector currently has $1.2 billion in medical claims caught in processing and healthcare facilities encounter a delay of 112 days on average to receive 90 per cent of their payments from insurance companies, Mr Aurakzai said, citing Alkair’s internal data.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/economy/2023/08/28/uaes-pure-health-buys-uks-largest-private-healthcare-group-for-12bn/">UAE's Pure Health buys UK’s largest private healthcare group for $1.2bn</a><a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/business/2022/10/06/mubadala-and-g42-to-create-new-entity-to-focus-on-future-of-healthcare/">Mubadala and G42 to create new entity to focus on future of healthcare</a>&nbsp;“We launched this investment fund with the primary aim of addressing one of the most formidable challenges within the sector, estimated to encompass $100 billion in spending within the GCC,” Mr Aurakzai said.&nbsp;The healthcare sector in the GCC and the wider Mena region has seen significant growth and transformation in recent years, driven by the Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent investments poured into the industry by stakeholders.&nbsp;Reforms by regional governments, particularly in the six-member economic bloc of GCC, such as the mandatory health insurance have played a vital part in the growth of the sector.&nbsp;The current expenditure in the GCC is projected to reach $135.5 billion in 2027, growing at an annual growth rate of 5.4 per cent from 2022, <a href="https://alpencapital.com/research/2023/gcc-healthcare-report-mar20.pdf">Dubai-based Alpen said in a report earlier this year.</a>&nbsp;Healthcare expenditure as a proportion of gross domestic product in the region is expected to grow from 5 per cent in 2022 to 5.8 per cent in 2027, the report added.&nbsp;Global funding for health tech companies in 2021 amounted to $29.1 billion across 729 deals, with an average deal size of $39.9 million, according to the consultancy Deloitte. The market is expected to continue growing in the next few years with R&amp;D attracting investment, followed by on-demand health care and treatment of disease.&nbsp;Alkhair Capital has partnered with <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/advertorial/2022/12/06/klaim-expands-its-healthcare-capital-solution-with-30m-knuru-deal/">Klaim Technologies</a>, a FinTech that provides AI-powered solutions for assessing insurance claims, as part of its proactive investment management approach to meet the objectives of the new fund.Alkhair will allocate the underlying investments across short to medium-term durations as it aims to strike a balance between fulfilling the liquidity requirements and achieving favourable returns.<figure class="image"><img src="/uploads/Screenshot_2023_09_04_at_4_09_59_PM_f685d86f22.png"></figure>“Our partnership with Alkhair ... marks a significant step towards resolving the pressing liquidity challenges in the healthcare sector,” Karim Dakki, chief executive of Klaim, said.&nbsp;"Leveraging our AI-driven insurance claims assessment technology, we aim to optimise and accelerate the claims process, facilitating prompt payments to medical facilities."&nbsp;Alkhair, which provides asset management and investment banking services including debt and equity capital market transactions, as well as, mergers and acquisition deals advisory, launched operations in Saudi Arabia in 2009.&nbsp;The company opened its DIFC office in the 2014 and also offers custody services to its clients for stock markets in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, <a href="https://alkhaircapital.com.sa/alkhair-capitals-fund/">according to its website</a>.&nbsp;It manages several funds including Alkhair Capital Sukuk Plus Fund, Alkhair Murabaha Fund, Saudi Equity Fund and Alkhair Capital IPOs Fund. &nbsp;

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Sharia-compliant investment vehicle will target companies employing artificial intelligence to bolster healthcare providers


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KLAIM raises $5 million Seed from Knuru Capital with plans to increase round to $30 million

KLAIM: Improving profitability and cash flow for healthcare providers

Enabling Efficiency: Dubai-Based Klaim Is Helping MENA's Healthcare Providers Do Away With Delayed Medical Insurance Claim Payments

"We Got Funded!" Dubai-Based Healthcare Fintech Startup Klaim Set To Receive US$30 Million Funding To Scale Across The Region

KLAIM unites 250 healthcare leaders in first-ever Iftar dinner

Alkhair Capital signs MoU with KLAIM to launch $50 mln investment products to support healthcare providers in MENA

Dubai's Alkhair Capital launches $100m fund for HealthTech investments

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KLAIM raises $5 million Seed from Knuru Capital with plans to increase round to $30 million

KLAIM: Improving profitability and cash flow for healthcare providers

Enabling Efficiency: Dubai-Based Klaim Is Helping MENA's Healthcare Providers Do Away With Delayed Medical Insurance Claim Payments

"We Got Funded!" Dubai-Based Healthcare Fintech Startup Klaim Set To Receive US$30 Million Funding To Scale Across The Region

KLAIM unites 250 healthcare leaders in first-ever Iftar dinner

Alkhair Capital signs MoU with KLAIM to launch $50 mln investment products to support healthcare providers in MENA

Dubai's Alkhair Capital launches $100m fund for HealthTech investments

Celebrating Klaim's industry recognition and achievements.Discover how our commitment to excellence in fintech innovation and customer service has been honored

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Celebrating Klaim's industry recognition and achievements.
Discover how our commitment to excellence in fintech innovation and customer service has been honored