From Footballer to Crypto Founder: Laban and Kain Roomes' XRP Healthcare Startup Goes Public

It's been a long road for entrepreneur Laban Roomes and his footballer-turned-crypto founder son Kain, but their XRP Healthcare startup is in the process of going public on the Canadian stock exchange.

Entrepreneurs Laban and Kain Roomes have co-founded XRP Healthcare, a company that aims to modernize healthcare in Africa by combining cryptocurrency infrastructure, artificial intelligence, and real-world services, in a move that will see the startup go public on the Canadian stock exchange.

The company, which is incorporated in Dubai, operates a digital healthcare platform as well as a chain of pharmacies in Uganda using the XRP Ledger to track pharmaceutical supplies and patient outcomes.

“In the West, we take reliable pharmacies and access to medication for granted,” says Laban. “In parts of Uganda, that just isn’t the case. This is about changing that and starting on the ground, not in the metaverse.”

“The country’s private healthcare market is highly fragmented. Our strategy involves buying and modernizing pharmacies, drastically reducing medication prices to enhance accessibility,” adds Kain.

The acquisitions, now seven and counting, are part of a longer-term dream to consolidate the private healthcare market in Uganda, bringing it all together under one interoperable system. But they’re pacing themselves.

“There’s a temptation in crypto to scale fast and break things,” says Laban. “We’re scaling slowly and building trust instead.”

On May 14, XRP signed a letter of intent with AAJ Capital 3 Corp for a reverse takeover to list on Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange. The founders frame going public as strategic, not speculative.

“We want transparency, regulation, and the capital to grow responsibly,” says Kain. “But this isn’t about a windfall. It’s about making sure the model works in Uganda, and eventually across Africa.”

The deal values the company at $16 million Canadian dollars ($11.5 million), so it’s hardly a Coinbase-listing style event. But it’s a big step along the road for the father-son team’s small XRP Ledger-based startup.

Football and modelling to XRP

It’s been a curious journey into crypto for Londoner Kain, who previously had a relatively successful career in football and modelling. He rose through youth teams at QPR, Tottenham, and Arsenal before playing professionally in Malta.

He modeled for Nike, Adidas, and Puma and signed to top London agency PRM, while also working for Sports Direct. But over time, the heat went out of his career, and with it, his finances, and he wound up in debt. That’s when he found Bitcoin. He wanted to believe in something new, something bold.

In 2018, he sold a prized Rolex watch for 7,000 British pounds worth of Bitcoin, an investment that grew to be worth 100,000 pounds. He reinvested the proceeds in ICOs, which pumped his bank balance to over a million and landed him in the tabloids.

After Kain’s first crypto investment paid off, both he and his father Laban immersed themselves in the space, following projects like Zilliqa and Ripple, attending meetups, and absorbing every detail.

Laban, 55, is a UK-born entrepreneur with a knack for reinvention, having spent years building businesses from scratch. Laban’s first significant enterprise was shipping Lada Riva cars to Jamaica, and then in 1995, he established the luxury gifts and gold plating company Goldgenie, where he developed a unique digital gold-plating device despite having no formal engineering training.

He appeared on BBC’s Dragons’ Den (later remade as Shark Tank in the US) where he secured the first televised investment from the celebrated investor James Caan, turning Goldgenie into a luxury brand in the late 2000s. After three years, Laban successfully bought Caan out, moving the company toward global celebrity clientele, including events like Elton John’s White Tie and Tiara Ball and Hollywood’s Emmy Awards, significantly elevating his business profile.

Teaming up with Laban to launch XRP Healthcare

The genesis of XRP Healthcare was prompted by Kain’s desire to build something worthwhile using crypto. Supported by his father, Kain explored ways to launch his own project.

“Initially, the idea of running a crypto project seemed daunting. We’d seen how other founders were treated, the criticism, the trolls, the pressure from the community in such a volatile environment, but after detailed discussions with my father, it felt like the right path. Healthcare became our chosen field, it’s large, critical, and a sector where you can genuinely impact lives.”

The project saw the creation of a digital platform powered by the XRP Ledger to facilitate cross-border payments, reduce administrative overhead and track medical inventory.

XRP Healthcare has two distinct yet interconnected business operations: a crypto-enabled digital healthcare platform and a physical mergers and acquisitions (M&A) strategy aimed at consolidating pharmacies in Africa, beginning in Uganda.

The XRP Healthcare custodial wallet enables users to hold, transfer and use