In a major strategic shift, Nigerian e-health startup NucleusIS has rebranded and relaunched as RIGO Incorporated, unveiling a broader mission to digitize Africa’s fragmented and under-resourced healthcare economy.
With a new name, expanded product offerings, and a unified platform approach, the company is positioning itself as digital infrastructure for healthcare providers and insurers across Nigeria.
Founded in 2019, NucleusIS initially focused on building backend enterprise software for health insurers and medical service providers.
With seven enterprise clients onboarded and a growing presence across clinics, pharmacies, hospitals, and HMOs, the newly branded RIGO now provides a vertical SaaS and embedded finance stack, aimed at powering operations, financial access, and digital integrations across Africa’s most complex health markets.
“We’re no longer just a lender, we’re an enabler,” said Kayode Odeyinde, founder and CEO of RIGO. “RIGO is infrastructure for healthcare, finance, operations, integrations, all from one connected platform.”
What They Used to Do
As NucleusIS, the startup began by offering enterprise solutions specifically designed for health maintenance organizations (HMOs) and clinical operators.
These early tools focused on claims processing, benefits management, and operational workflows for insurers. NucleusIS also piloted API-based health insurance distribution, collaborating with retail platforms and telcos to push affordable health coverage in underinsured markets.
The approach was largely B2B-focused, targeting institutional clients that required better digital infrastructure but lacked in-house development capacity.
What Is Now New
The transformation into RIGO marks a significant expansion, not just in branding, but in function and scope. The company now delivers a dual-platform solution:
RIGO Tech: Software tools for day-to-day healthcare operations, such as patient records, billing, inventory, and clinical data.
RIGO Finance: Embedded financial products tailored to healthcare, including credit lines, revenue-based financing, and payment management.
This integration allows health businesses, from large hospitals to rural pharmacies, to operate and grow from a single digital dashboard. RIGO is now providing tools to thousands of providers across Nigeria, signaling a shift from niche insurer tech to full healthcare ecosystem enablement.
Founding and Funding Journey
RIGO (formerly NucleusIS) was founded in 2019 by Kayode Odeyinde, a Nigerian entrepreneur with a background in health systems innovation.
The company gained early traction through Africa Startup Initiative Programme (ASIP), a pan-African accelerator backed by Startupbootcamp AfriTech and mobile operator Telecel. This platform provided initial visibility and support in fine-tuning its product-market fit.
Although RIGO’s funding details remain undisclosed, experts say its growth has been fuelled by strategic partnerships with telecom operators, healthcare retailers, and insurance distributors.
Addressing Nigeria’s Healthcare Gaps
Nigeria’s health sector faces multiple challenges: low government spending (only 3.9% of GDP), overreliance on out-of-pocket payments (72%), and poor access to working capital for providers.
RIGO’s platform aims to solve these problems by making healthcare operations more efficient, transparent, and financially viable.
Its platformized model eliminates data silos by allowing insurers, suppliers, and providers to collaborate in real-time, while also providing financing for critical purchases, ranging from diagnostics tools to pharmaceutical stock.
Why It Matters
Experts believe that, currently, Africa’s healthcare systems are undergoing a long-overdue digital shift. In Nigeria, where over 50% of citizens lack formal health coverage, RIGO’s embedded tools offer a rare opportunity to modernize infrastructure without waiting for public sector reform.
Its rebranding is aligned with a broader trend in African healthtech, where startups are moving from single-service offerings to end-to-end platforms.
“We’re building the pipes for healthcare,” Odeyinde added. “If healthcare is the heart, RIGO is the arteries.”
With the continent’s digital health market projected to exceed $100 billion by 2030, and global venture capital increasingly warming up to vertical SaaS models, RIGO’s hybrid play, combining technology, financing, and integration, could be a blueprint for scaling healthcare innovation in other emerging markets
