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Joseph Gitonga: School drop-out inside Forbes Top 30 Under 30

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Joseph Gitonga Forbes

Joseph Gitonga, a US-based Kenyan software developer, was featured in the Forbes Magazine Top 30 Under 30 listing for his venture in insurance.

Through a startup, Vital Health, Joseph Gitonga provides medical insurance coverage with his main target being home health workers.

This was inspired after he watched his parents struggle to keep a small home healthcare business going, forcing him to drop out of Pennsylvania State University.

Through Joseph Gitonga ‘s Vitable Health, home health workers and others can access a primary care-based health insurance plan with virtual and at-home visits with no copays or deductibles, according to Forbes.

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Vital Health sends medics directly to members’ homes and workplaces. Members can also be attended to via telemedicine to provide acute and preventative care at a lower cost.

Gitonga relocated to the US with his family aged 13, where his parents started a home-care business for the elderly who do not have caregivers.

While still at Penn State in 2018, Gitonga won $10,000 (Ksh.1.1 million) in a college competition to bring his then-idea into life.

“At the start of the semester, I didn’t know if Vitable Health was even possible – the idea was Uber for urgent care, where we’d bring the provider to you. I didn’t know if I could hire providers, I didn’t know corporate practice of medicine laws, there were just a lot of variables I didn’t know,” he said in a previous interview after the win.

“In fall of 2018, I built the tech product that would enable Vitable, found a lawyer, and applied to Inc.U. I remember going to the taping the next semester, and that was the first week we’d launched.”

The company has so far attracted $9 million (Ksh.1.02 billion) funding from investors.

Gitonga also boasts of previous stints at Microsoft, where he worked three stints as an intern between 2017 and 2019.

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