Orange teams up with insurance firm AXA Assurance to buy a majority stake in DabaDoc

In a recent announcement, Orange has stated that it has joined hands with insurance firm AXA Assurance Maroc to buy the majority of stakes in DabaDoc, which is a Moroccan digital healthcare platform. Besides the financial investment of an unspecified amount, the deal is also primarily focused on Orange providing access to its main digital payments infrastructure to help DabaDoc grow its business.

DabaDoc, an online medical appointment management platform, is a free service in that it costs customers nothing to make an appointment with a medical and healthcare professional. However, the service does not cover treatment costs. The company has not yet specified how many medical professionals might have to pay to use this beneficiary service.

Orange's tri-party partnership with DabaDoc will benefit from the broad experience of AXA, which is the global leader in health insurance, and Orange's technological expertise and payment solutions will enable digital solutions will be developed rapidly to scale up and benefit patients and the entire African healthcare ecosystem. AXA's involvement with Orange will help its policyholders interact with healthcare organizations and professionals through its appointment booking system and remote consultation infrastructure.

 

WhatsApp may launch payment services commercially within two months

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has confirmed that WhatsApp will follow data localization rules over the next two months; so that it can launch its payments service in India on a full scale, PTI reported.

In an interview with PTI, Dilip Abse, CEO of NPCI said that even after WhatsApp out its payments service, it will take at least to cut the cash dominance in the country as the user base of digital payments needs to be at least treble to 300 million to have any tangible impact on paring cash usage.

“There are still a couple of intermediaries where work is in progress. One is Google, and the second is WhatsApp. We believe WhatsApp will be fully compliant in the next two months' time,” said Mr. Abse.

Since 2018, users have been using a beta version of the payment services in India and stakeholders, and its 300 million users have been eagerly waiting for the official launch.

A third-party audit by a firm impanelled by the RBI is currently underway to ascertain WhatsApp's compliance. Once the auditors complete their probe, NPCI will review the same and will see how to move forward, added Mr. Abse.

Mr. Abse hoped that the popularity of digital payments would thrive in India with the increased use of NPCI-developed UPI platform by intermediaries like WhatsApp.