About $12 million in series A equity-debt funding has been raised to upgrade productivity in West African nations by Nigerian startup, Remedial Health. The startup computerizes pharmacies to boost efficiency in the industry’s value chain.
The series A funding was led by fintech VC firm QED Investors, banking on rooted economic opportunities like remittance, and loans in the pharmaceutical industry. After its engagement in TeamApt now Moniepoint and Flapkap last year, this is the firm’s third investment in the continent. Another firm involved in the co-led was Ventures Platform, which witnessed the engagement of existing investors like Gaingels, Tencent, and Y Combinator.
Remedial Health’s services create platforms that allow Health centers, hospitals, and pharmacies to order medicines and other health products culled from dependable producers and established wholesalers. This aids in stabilizing prices and mitigates the distribution of fake medicines that cause deaths amongst the country’s citizens and in Africa as well. Furthermore, it promotes standard handling of health products, which goes a long way in cleansing the Nigerian drug market.
About 15% of drugs marketed in the country are fake as stated in a report by Nigeria’s National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control while the United Nations Office revealed that an estimated half a million persons die from fake drugs in the sub-Saharan Africa.
The CEO of the startup, Samuel Okwuda, and COO, Victor Benjamin, founded Remedial Health in 2021, and plan to utilize the funds to expand its operations in the country which also includes 4 million debt to aid in systemizing catalogued sponsorship.
The CEO revealed that their major focus is expansion into more health centers and pharmacies in all the states in the country, mainly the rural areas as the need there is increasing.
He further stated that “We are seeing more growth in rural areas, because they are difficult to reach, and are far from major open drug markets in Nigeria,” adding that their firm has a “considerable market share” in about 17 states in the country.
About 5,000 pharmacies and health centers enjoy the services of the YC alumni as the alumni has expanded its client base by 3 times since November 2022. Most of their 8,00 plus products are culled from 300 manufacturers such as GSK, AstraZeneca, and Pfizer.
The revenues and client base has grown about 7 times since October 2022 due to their inventory financing which allows its customers to restock without any advance payment.
The CEO buttressed this by quoting, “We are a B2B business and we are able to provide inventory to these pharmacies without requesting cash up-front, or at the point of delivery… We’ve seen them grow their businesses, open additional branches because they are able to get credit.”
The Nigerian startup has a framework that allows its clients to monitor their operations as well as operate inventory handling through an app, accounting, and financial statements. In addition, it gives actual up-to-date business surveillance that reports to manufacturers on fabrication and grouping.
Remedial Health clients receive orders within 24 hours and the startup has a matrix of hubs for dispatch, scattered all over the areas it operates, and engages in last-mile dispatch in-house or with the help of partners as explained by the CEO. MyDawa and Drugstoc are some other startups that are advancing operations in the pharmaceutical industry’s value chain.
Mr. Gbenga Ajayi who is the QED Investors partner, and head of Africa, stated, “The success that Remedial Health has enjoyed to date is an indication of the market gap that exists, and their value in providing effective holistic services to thousands of pharmacies across Nigeria.”
“QED is particularly excited about the embedded financial services opportunities within the vertical — the ability to provide payments, embedded lending, and other fintech solutions to this underserved but very crucial sector.”
