Despite making up over 80% of the world’s population and more than 90% of its disease burden, low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) have suffered the most from global health disparities for far too long. Despite this, they only account for 6% of global pharmaceutical revenue. Getting everyone access to high-quality, low-cost drugs is still hard, but it’s more important than ever to solve this problem. 

Today, Axmed, an innovative two-sided B2B marketplace platform, announced a $2 million seed funding round. This is a significant step towards solving this problem. This investment aims to speed up the process of making essential and new medicines more affordable, available, and sent to areas that need them.

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With the new investment led by Founderful and a $5 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, overall funding is $7 million. With this funding, Axmed will expand its technical, commercial, and technology teams to enter strategically selected African and Caribbean countries.

Axmed’s B2B marketplace helps develop healthcare

For public, third-sector, and private organisations in emerging and rising countries, Axmed’s B2B marketplace optimises healthcare provider procurement. We aggregate demand for off-patent and patented drugs, giving manufacturers more significant, cost-effective order quantities and buyers more cost and availability leverage. To speed up RFP consolidation and supply logistics mapping, the tool. This reduces obstacles for patients and providers to expensive medicines and helps manufacturers expand in developing nations.

With 30 years of healthcare, finance, and public-private partnership experience, Axmed’s founding team is dedicated and skilled. Felix Ohnmacht and Sofia Radley-Searle, former Novartis and GSK executives, join CEO Emmanuel Akpakwu, Novartis AG’s Sub-Saharan Africa CCO. All want to address healthcare disparity.

Axmed CEO Emmanuel Akpakwu said: “We are constructing a daring new vision for drug accessibility, not just a platform. This perspective empowers buyers and unlocks growth market potential, enabling suppliers to compete.

This seed funding enables Axmed to strategically build its engineering and business development teams and deploy the platform. Targeted financing will help Axmed develop its marketplace technologies and engage with healthcare partners to ensure a reliable medicine supply.

“We’re delighted to back this outstanding team,” stated Lukas Weder, Founderful Founding Partner. “The team’s commitment to this crucial problem is amazing. We trust them to revolutionise the $140 billion LMIC pharma market and increase medicine access for 6 billion people.”

Beyond technology, Axmed builds crucial collaborations and supplies vital medicines to needy individuals. The LMIC pharmaceutical market is expanding to $140 billion, with Africa alone offering $43 billion. After the COVID-19 pandemic, LMICs needed a coordinated and sustained medicines market.

“Industry leaders and healthcare professionals embrace Axmed’s strategy because it could improve medicine access in Low and Middle-Income Countries.”OECS PPI Head Roselyne Opel stated that Axmed’s approach might revolutionise patient care. “We look forward to seeing their platform reshape access, empowering buyers and strengthening supply of lifesaving therapies to a broader patient base.”

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Axmed | Founderful

The revolutionary healthcare venture Axmed aims to improve medicine access in low- and middle-income nations. Axmed’s comprehensive digital platform supports a two-sided B2B marketplace between pharmaceutical manufacturers/suppliers and healthcare providers, providing a consistent, inexpensive supply of essential medicines. Using technology, brilliant relationships, and a thorough grasp of LMIC concerns, Axmed promotes sustainable health outcomes and global health fairness.

Founderful is Switzerland’s leading pre-seed fund. We give every founder our most profound understanding and highest levels of support, and together, we’re building the future of the Swiss startup ecosystem.