Zoscales Partners, an investment firm, investing in private equity with impact in East Africa, has invested in Pioneer Diagnostics Center (PDC), a diagnostic imaging service provider in Ethiopia.   

Fredd Kambo, the Principal who led the deal for the East African private equity firm, said: “Ethiopia currently has the lowest penetration of diagnostic imaging capacity per capita in East Africa. The demand for diagnostic services is growing due to the increasing population, health consciousness, life expectancy rates and incidents of non-communicable diseases like heart disease, stroke, cancer, and  diabetes.”

“The COVID-19 pandemic further demonstrates the need for investment in healthcare, and it is of vital importance that the private sector plays its part in provision of services.”   

Pioneer Diagnostics Center was established in 2006 and is a forerunner in quality imaging diagnostic services in Ethiopia mainly MRIs, CT scans, X-Rays and Ultrasounds.

PDC was the first company to bring a privately owned MRI to Ethiopia.

The company has shown solid growth over the past few years.

The demand for healthcare services is high in Ethiopia and there is a need for additional capacity and therefore strong potential for growth.    

“We are partnering with a leader in the sector in Ethiopia, PDC founder and CEO Brook Fekadu, to increase capacity and capture the growth opportunities in the market. Brook was the first to introduce an MRI to the private sector in Ethiopia and has led the company in its growth over the recent years,” said Jacop Rentschler, Managing Partner at Zoscales.

With the investment in PDC, Zoscales is moving closer to their goal of investing in the under-served healthcare sector in East Africa, supporting the SDG 3.

Brook Fekadu, PDC founder and CEO, said: ”The state-of-the-art equipment and software that we will acquire due to the investment from Zoscales Partners will significantly improve the quality of images and reports we produce. In addition, we expect an increase in the number of patients that have access to our imaging services and the ability to conduct new investigations that we currently cannot perform. Our patients will be able to get the same standard of services they would expect from imaging centers in Europe and North America.”

Zoscales launched their first $75m private equity fund, Zoscales Fund I, in August 2017 and have deployed 60% of the capital in the fund, totaling five investments.