Remedial Health has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding to digitize pharmacies, and stem the availability of pretend and substandard pharmaceutical merchandise, beginning with Nigeria earlier than increasing to the remainder of Africa.
The spherical was led by International Ventures and Ventures Platform, with participation from Ingressive Capital, Voltron Capital, Opeyemi Awoyemi’s (Jobberman co-founder) Angel Syndicate Fund, and different angel traders, together with Flutterwave’s Olugbenga “GB” Agboola and Victor Asemota.
A part of the brand new funding might be used to increase the startup’s buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) providing, for a good wider attain.
Based in 2020 by Samuel Okwuada, a educated pharmacist and self-taught software program developer, collectively along with his co-founder Victor Benjamin, Remedial Well being began off as a non-public label enterprise, targeted on contract manufactured merchandise from markets like India, which they might then promote to pharmacies in Nigeria.
“That enterprise was fairly small. However a minimum of we have been out there and we have been rising,” stated Okwuada, who pursued his MSc in Pharmacy on the College of East Anglia, within the UK.
Okwuada began his entrepreneurial journey whereas nonetheless on the college, the place he constructed SaaS merchandise, earlier than utilizing his expertise in tech, and coaching as a pharmacist to launch Remedial along with Benjamin, a pharmaceutical area gross sales agent.
Months after beginning the enterprise, and attributable to a shift in market demand, and provide chain disruptions exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, Remedial Well being began transferring in a special route — as their prospects started making orders for merchandise that have been outdoors their non-public label providing.
To maintain up with the rising demand, and to streamline the ordering course of, they developed a affected person remedy information (PMR) system that made sourcing straightforward, and digitized pharmacies.
Remedial Well being’s system permits pharmacies to handle their operations, make and monitor orders – which the startup says it fulfills inside 24 hours. The platform additionally shops sufferers’ medical information and helps reporting and accounting.
“For these utilizing the system, as a result of we are able to principally see their cabinets, we’re fixing their provide points by guaranteeing that they’re getting the merchandise once they want them. And they also don’t need to go to the market and waste time by going by way of 20 to 30 particular person distributors to purchase all of the medicines and provides that they want.”
Conscious that there’s a market phase that can take some time to digitize, Remedial has a web-based store that enables pharmacy homeowners not utilizing its system to make orders by way of an app.
“We don’t power everybody to make use of the system as a result of we don’t assume that each single pharmacy has a pc and fixed energy provide. And since we all know that the most important drawback is provide, we make it doable for them to entry the procurement system on their telephones.”
Remedial Well being’s system is stemming the availability of pretend and substandard pharmaceutical merchandise and serving to pharmacies streamline their operations. Picture Credit: Remedial Well being
The system helps Remedial to conduct stock monitoring, which cuts stockouts by redirecting merchandise that aren’t transferring in a single pharmacy to the place provide is brief, or demand is excessive.
The startup has a predominant distribution middle supported by hubs unfold throughout its areas of operation for a quicker turnaround time – making it doable to “attain any pharmacy from any of our hubs inside an hour.”
Final mile supply is finished by way of its in-house logistics operation, or by its companions however the plan is to combine its system with a serious logistics participant in Nigeria for a seamless end-to-end resolution.
Remedial Well being at the moment covers six states with plans to increase throughout the west African nation, and to enter further African markets earlier than the top of the 12 months. They’re additionally planning to increase their attain within the areas that they’re at the moment in.
Remedial, additionally a part of the Winter 2022 cohort of Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator accelerator, sources its merchandise from over 100 pharmaceutical producers and suppliers, together with GSK, Pfizer and Astrazeneca, in addition to Nigeria’s Orange Medicine, Emzor and Fidson Healthcare.
Up to now, the startup has over 300 pharmacies making orders by way of its app, and numerous others utilizing WhatsApp. It additionally extends credit score to pharmacies with plans to increase the protection of this financing service.
“The pharmacies don’t need to pay for merchandise upfront; in some instances, they pay deposits, perhaps 20%, after which pay the stability over time, however relying on how effectively we’ve identified them, it might even be 100% financing.”
By extending financing and guaranteeing the availability of normal merchandise to pharmacies, Remedial Well being has joined the rising record of tech-enabled companies which are digitizing the pharmaceutical provide chains, which at the moment stay fragmented and in-efficient, resulting in the proliferation in markets of pretend and substandard products. Different notable startups within the area are Kenya’s MyDawa, Ghana’s mPharma and Nigeria’s DrugStoc.
Remedial Well being, in response to its founders, isn’t just seeking to right the availability chain challenges solely, however to do it whereas bringing main healthcare nearer to folks.
“These pharmacies are lower than a 15-minute stroll from folks’s homes, and I really feel that’s the strategy to remodel healthcare in Africa –By including diagnostic companies, and a health care provider to those neighborhood pharmacies — by actually bringing all the things to the folks, we might actually remodel healthcare in Africa,” stated Okwuada.
