Eiko Health

Doctor booking and medical records app

Epitaph

“Here lies Eiko Health. A banker came home after his father could not get emergency care and built an app to book doctors on demand. Eighteen months later the registrar dissolved it for filing nothing at all. No one answered its own emergency.”

Overview

Born: 2017 (Year)
Died: October 2018 (Month)
Lifespan: 21 months
Fate: Dormant
Headquarters: 🇬🇭 Ghana
Category: Health Tech
Primary cause: Unknown

Death certificate

Timeline

5 April 2017Eiko Health Limited incorporated
Registered with GBP 1 of capital; directors Samuel Dogbatse (resident in Ghana) and Hannah Anoff-Afiakwa (Ghanaian, Tema).
30 November 2017Kenko Doctor launches
Disrupt Africa reports the Ghanaian startup launching a doctor-booking and medical-records app on iOS, with web, Android and USSD promised for Q1 2018.
11 June 2018Founder profiled as a health-policy student
The University of Chicago Harris School profiles Dogbatse as an incoming student on its dual executive master's with LSE.
23 July 2018Registered office moved to a default address
Companies House replaces the company's registered office with its own default address in Cardiff.
31 July 2018First gazette notice of compulsory strike-off
The registrar begins proceedings to strike the company from the register.
16 October 2018Company dissolved
Final gazette notice; Eiko Health Limited is dissolved via compulsory strike-off, having never filed accounts.

Autopsy report

Why did Eiko Health shut down?

Eiko Health was a Ghanaian e-health startup founded by Samuel Dogbatse, a former London investment banker who returned to Ghana after his father struggled to access emergency care following a violent robbery. In November 2017 it launched Kenko Doctor, an iOS app for booking and paying for doctor appointments and storing medical records. Eiko Health Limited, the company registered on 5 April 2017 with Dogbatse and Ghana-based co-director Hannah Anoff-Afiakwa, filed no accounts or confirmation statement; the UK registrar issued a first gazette notice for compulsory strike-off on 31 July 2018 and dissolved the company on 16 October 2018. No reporting of a wind-down was found in Ghanaian or pan-African media, and no source explains why it stopped.

What Eiko Health attempted

Kenko Doctor was a mobile marketplace for healthcare. Patients could find a doctor, see ratings, book an appointment, pay in-app, and hold an electronic medical record that travelled with them between facilities. The stated problems it addressed were hospital queues, long waiting times and fragmented paper records. It launched first on iOS in November 2017, with web, Android and USSD versions promised for the first quarter of 2018. The business model was a subscription charged to hospitals, clinics and doctors for the electronic medical records system plus a percentage cut of each appointment fee.

Early warning signs

UK Companies House records show Eiko Health Limited never filed accounts or a confirmation statement after its 5 April 2017 incorporation. Its registered office was replaced with a Companies House default address in Cardiff on 23 July 2018, eight days before the first strike-off notice.

What happened

The full UK filing history contains only four items: incorporation on 5 April 2017 with GBP 1 of capital, a registered-office change to PO Box 4385, Cardiff on 23 July 2018, the first gazette notice of compulsory strike-off on 31 July 2018, and the final gazette dissolving the company on 16 October 2018: no accounts and no confirmation statement were ever filed. Samuel Dogbatse's Companies House officer record shows Eiko Health Limited as his only UK appointment ever, with no resignation and no successor company. On the Ghanaian side, the product domain kenkodoctor.com now returns no WHOIS record at all (the registration has lapsed) and the Internet Archive holds a single capture of it, dated 16 September 2019.

Lessons for future builders

A founder's own story is the best reason to start and the worst evidence that the thing will work. Eiko filed no accounts at all in its eighteen months, which is what a company looks like when the product ships before anyone is minding the company.