Remedial Health has closed a $4.4 million equity seed round. This helps the company move closer to its goal of expanding its operations all over Africa. The health-tech startup is currently attempting to break into the markets of East and West Africa. It also wants to speed up its growth across Nigeria and give its growing number of local pharmacies, PPMVs (Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors), and hospitals in Nigeria access to financing so they can buy more inventory.
The most recent fund was led by Global Ventures and included Tencent, Y Combinator, Cathexis Ventures, LightSpeed Venture Partners Scout Fund, Ventures Platform, Alumni Ventures, True Capital Management, and several angel investors, such as Guillaume Luccisano and Christopher Golda.
Samuel Okwuada and Victor Benjamin started Remedial Health in 2020 with the goal of making it easier for people in Africa to get reliable, low-cost medications. They did this by using innovations in pharmaceutical procurement, inventory financing solutions, pharmacy operations and patient management solutions.
Remedial Health, backed by YC, received $1 million in pre-seed funding in January to launch its PMR (patient medication records) and digital procurement platforms and make it simpler for neighbourhood pharmacies and Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) to access affordable and genuine retail medications. The firm also stated that it has the intention of operating in additional states in Nigeria, as it had only been in operation in six at the time.
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Okwuada said, “Since January, the number of customers on our platform has grown by more than six times.” He was talking about the growth of the healthtech startup. Customers always say that their favorite parts of our platform are how easy and effective our inventory financing is, how many different products they can find on our platform, and how efficient our procurement process is. Regardless of where our customers are located in Nigeria, they typically receive their orders within 24 hours. He added that the last mile of delivery is done by the company or partners, with help from its distribution hubs.
“The introduction of our inventory finance product has also drawn more users to our website because they can use it to expand their enterprises and deal with the problem of rising costs.” According to Okwuada, since they released the product, their average basket size has increased by more than 50%, and more than 60% of their consumers use it.
More about Remedial Health
Remedial Health has many ways for local pharmacies, PPMVs, and hospitals to get affordable and reliable retail medications, such as its digital procurement and PMR (patient medication records) systems. With Remedial Health’s logistics network, validated drugs can be sent to a doctor’s office within 24 hours at prices that are the same as or better than those at an open-air medicine market. Not only can pharmacies and PPMVs use credit to buy goods, but they can also use it to give their employees loans and salary advances.
Since January 2022, Remedial Health’s sales have grown by 600%, and the company now serves 16 of Nigeria’s 36 states.
This new investment will support the expansion of its services throughout the remainder of Nigeria, which will also lay the framework for an African-wide rollout in 2023.
Observations
The cost of medications has significantly increased in Nigeria as a result of the effects of several worldwide events over the past three years, including the COVID-19 epidemic and growing inflation. These price increases put more pressure on neighbourhood pharmacies and Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs), who serves as the majority of Nigerians’ primary source of medications, to strike a balance between the need to provide life-saving medications to their communities and the need to operate their businesses successfully. Additionally, there is the issue of an opaque supply chain, which prevents manufacturers from having timely or complete visibility into what is happening at the front lines. As a result, pharmacies and PPMVs are frequently forced to settle for less than they require.
Neighbourhood pharmacies, PPMVs, and hospitals can gain from group/bulk buying discounts, time savings, improved efficiency, access to credit to increase their earnings, and additional revenue from offering financial services and other primary healthcare services by utilizing Remedial Health’s tech-enabled platform. In order to make better decisions about forecasting, production, and distribution, manufacturers also benefit from an effective supply chain, a clear and quick route to market for their products, and real-time knowledge of product utilization.
According to Global Ventures Principal Sacha Haider, there is a substantial market opportunity to serve neighbourhood pharmacies all over Africa. Over 80% of the yearly pharmaceutical sales market, worth over 70 billion dollars, is driven by just 500,000 community pharmacies in Nigeria. Through a tech-powered, pharmacy-focused healthcare network that has enabled over 25% in cost reductions at the point of treatment, the team at Remedial Health is proactively addressing obstacles, including price opacity, poor drug quality control, and a widely fragmented supply chain.