CarePay International has announced the appointment of Rita Okuthe to the Supervisory Board, highlighting the company’s commitment to incorporating Kenyan leadership and expertise in its strategic decisions. Additionally, Pieter Prickaerts, the Managing Director of Kenya’s leading health insurance technology platform, M-TIBA, has been appointed as the CEO of CarePay International. Prickaerts will lead the global expansion of CarePay’s proven technology, officially assuming his new role on July 1, 2024, while continuing to oversee M-TIBA’s operations in Kenya.
Prickaerts succeeds Kees van Lede, who has led CarePay for nine years. Van Lede will transition to an advisory role, remaining closely involved as a co-founder. Okuthe’s appointment to the Supervisory Board underscores CarePay’s dedication to integrating local insights into its strategic framework.
“In our mission to provide healthcare access to more people in Kenya, across the region, and internationally, Pieter will be supported by a robust and diverse management team,” Okuthe stated.
Prickaerts joined CarePay in 2019 as customer success director before becoming managing director of M-TIBA in 2023.
In these responsibilities, he significantly scaled CarePay’s technology in Kenya, making health insurance more accessible and affordable to Kenyans. Before joining CarePay, Prickaerts held roles at McKinsey & Company across various global locations.
CarePay’s platform connects individual members with payers and healthcare providers in real time, streamlining patient payments and information flows. This cloud-based technology reduces administrative costs and accelerates hospital payments through automation and AI, thereby lowering healthcare costs and enhancing transparency and patient experience. To date, over 4.8 million people and 5,000 healthcare providers have joined the platform, and CarePay is planning to expand into other regions. The company raised $45 million (Sh5.8 billion) in Series A funding in 2019 and was recognized in Fortune’s 500 ‘Change the World’ index in 2020.
“Technology has had a significant disruptive impact on healthcare management, particularly as global healthcare expenditures continue to grow,” said Prickaerts. In Sub-Saharan Africa, less than 15 percent of the population has access to health insurance, highlighting the critical need to expand access, he noted. “I am honored by the board’s trust in appointing me as CEO and look forward to advancing our global healthcare transformation. I extend my gratitude to Kees for his contributions and dedication in advancing CarePay to its current stage.”
As a founding member, Kees van Lede has built a strong foundation and demonstrated the value of CarePay’s technology through real-world applications in Kenya and beyond, Prickaerts noted.
