Southern Africa · Healthcare & Insurance Distribution

We build inside
channels that
already
have trust.

5STRAT is a distribution-first commercial operator. We embed healthcare and insurance programmes inside pharmacies, clinics, and community environments — not on top of them.

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4
Ring-Fenced Subsidiaries
26+
Years Combined Healthcare, Insurance & Tech

Why partner with 5STRAT?

Independent Community Pharmacies

Independent community pharmacies are not distribution channels — they are trust channels. Every patient who walks through your door already believes in you. 5STRAT embeds alternative annuity income streams directly into that trust — at no cost to your pharmacy.

We start by understanding your specific pharmacy environment — your patient base, your dispensing volume, your community. Then we identify and embed the solution that fits. You earn. Your patients benefit. Your pharmacy grows.

No Cost To You

Every solution carries zero financial risk to your pharmacy. We fund the infrastructure. You earn from it.

Built Around You

We start with a conversation, not a contract. We build a model that fits your environment.

Annuity Income

Recurring revenue that grows with your patient base — month after month.

"The pharmacy counter is the most credible healthcare touchpoint in underserved South African communities. No one has made it a genuine revenue engine for the pharmacist. Until now."

— Clifford Lortan, Founder & CEO, 5STRAT

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Project Portfolio

Four Ring-Fenced Subsidiaries

Each subsidiary is independently funded with its own cap table. Investors in one entity hold no stake in any other.

0 1

ScriptCircle (Pty) Ltd

A pharmacy-embedded GLP-1 metabolic health platform. WhatsApp-first patient intake, HPCSA Booklet 10 compliant, with an automated retention engine built inside the pharmacy channel.

Use Case

Patients on GLP-1 therapy are enrolled, monitored, and retained through a structured clinical programme — managed at the pharmacy counter without requiring a clinic visit.

Channel

Independent community pharmacies

0 1 A

Embedded Insurance (Pty) Ltd

Medical insurance distribution embedded inside the ScriptCircle pharmacy channel. The dispensary counter becomes the most trusted environment to initiate an insurance conversation.

Use Case

Insurance products are introduced at the point of care — through pharmacists who already hold patient trust — converting foot traffic into policyholders.

Channel

Independent community pharmacies

0 2

Cathy Health (Pty) Ltd

A voice AI metabolic healthcare coach deployed as a Patient Support Programme. Cathy engages patients in real time — monitoring tolerability, reinforcing adherence, and flagging clinical concerns.

Use Case

Pharmaceutical manufacturers running GLP-1 and metabolic health programmes use Cathy as an always-on patient engagement layer — reducing dropout, improving outcomes, and generating clinical insight at scale.

Target

Pharmaceutical manufacturers and licensed peptide distribution channels

Large longevity groups and specialist clinics

Patient support programme operators

0 3

Cathy Insurance (Pty) Ltd

A voice AI platform delivering two distinct insurance functions — member retention and new policy acquisition. Operates in multiple South African languages, around the clock, at a cost that makes the numbers work.

Use Case 1 — Member Retention Avatar

Deployed across at-risk member books. Cathy identifies lapse signals and engages before cancellation — handling debit order failures within 24 hours, proactively calling benefit underutilisers, and managing anniversary risk 60 days before renewal. Fee structure: performance-only, per retained member. No retainer.

Use Case 2 — Lead Generation Engine

A five-stage acquisition funnel converting uninsured South Africans into policyholders. Starts on TikTok, moves to WhatsApp, ends with a completed application captured conversationally. The underwriter receives a qualified applicant. CPA model — 40 to 60% cheaper than broker-led acquisition. FAIS-compliant: Cathy provides information, not advice.

Target

Insurance underwriters

Underwriting Management Agents (UMAs)

Medical scheme administrators

Large corporate broker firms

How We Operate

Distribution infrastructure built from first principles.

We do not build apps and wait for patients to download them. We build inside environments where patients already are — and activate those environments as commercial distribution channels.

Embedded Channels

Pharmacies, clinics, and employer environments as primary distribution infrastructure. The channel comes with trust pre-loaded.

Ring-Fenced Structure

One HoldCo. Four independent subsidiaries. Clean cap tables per project. Investors enter at the entity level that fits their mandate.

Governance-First

HPCSA Booklet 10, POPIA, SAHPRA Schedule 4. Clinical governance embedded at architecture level — not added as compliance afterthought.

Founding Team

Clifford Lortan

Founder & CEO

Clifford Lortan

5STRAT (Pty) Ltd

Clifford spent 17 years inside the commercial engines of Pfizer and Novartis — not in support functions, but in the field, building market access, channel strategy, and commercial models across Southern Africa. That foundation gave him something most founders in this space do not have: a structural understanding of how healthcare and insurance products actually move through a market.

He is the architect of South Africa's first pharmacy-embedded medical insurance platform — conceived, built, and taken to market through a partnership with Genric Insurance Company (Old Mutual). The thesis was his. The channel was his. Independent community pharmacies, long overlooked as a distribution asset, became the activation engine for a medical insurance product reaching a market that traditional broker-led models had consistently failed to convert.

5STRAT is the continuation of that work — built with the discipline of someone who has seen what breaks commercial models and refused to repeat it. Clifford's focus is singular: to build genuine alternative income streams for independent community pharmacies and private clinics. Not add-ons. Not referral fees. Structured, scalable revenue channels embedded inside the environments that communities already trust.

Lex Goetz

Chief Intelligence Officer · AI Africa

Lex Goetz

Lex Goetz is COO of a voice AI platform built on the principle that language should be the most productive interface in any organisation. The platform does not build chatbots or IVR menus. It builds voice intelligence systems that listen, respond, adapt in real time, and trigger controlled, auditable actions — within defined compliance boundaries.

The platform has been demonstrated in institutional environments across Europe and is now being deployed in the South African healthcare and insurance market through its partnership with 5STRAT. Lex leads the development of the Cathy voice AI platform — the clinical and insurance engagement layer that gives 5STRAT's distribution model its scale. Where the pharmacy channel provides the trust, Cathy provides the reach.

As Chief Intelligence Officer for AI Africa, Lex anchors 5STRAT's technology architecture — ensuring that what gets built is not only commercially viable but governance-ready, multilingual, and designed for the specific realities of the South African market.

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Let's have an informed conversation.

If you are a pharmacy partner, investor, insurer, or pharma company — one step to get started. We sign a mutual NDA and share the full commercial model. No obligation beyond that.

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