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Tag: consumables

  • Remedial Health raises $12 million to deliver financial services for neighbourhood pharmacies and drive deeper growth in Nigeria

    Remedial Health raises $12 million to deliver financial services for neighbourhood pharmacies and drive deeper growth in Nigeria

    Remedial Health, a healthtech startup that develops solutions to make Africa’s pharmaceutical value chain more efficient, has secured $12 million in an equity and debt funding round to deepen the penetration of its services in Nigeria and support the delivery of targeted financial services to drive business growth across the country’s pharmaceutical sector.

    The $8 million Series A equity funding round was led by US-based venture capital firm, QED Investors and co-led by Ventures Platform, who have now invested in Remedial Health at every funding round since the pre-seed stage. This investment also represents Ventures Platform’s first Series A investment. Ycombinator, Tencent and Gaingels also invested after participating in previous rounds. The $4 million debt funding was led by a consortium of local and international financial institutions.

    Across Africa, 85 percent of retail medicine purchases happen at micro-enterprises, typically neighbourhood pharmacies) and Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs). For store owners, 90 percent of their wholesale purchases happen in open markets that are largely unfit for consumables and medicines. Store owners also have to endure expensive and time-consuming weekly order cycles that typically amount to two working days to access the inventory they need to stock their shelves. These realities, combined with a predominantly paper-based approach to managing operations, present various challenges that make it difficult to maximise profitability.

    Remedial Health operates at the intersection of healthcare, supply chain management, technology and financial services, delivering the digital procurement infrastructure to power effective healthcare distribution for Africa’s 1.2 million pharmacies. Starting in Nigeria, Remedial Health has built an effective operating system for pharmaceutical buyers and suppliers, working with more than 300 manufacturers and serving more than 5,000 hospitals, pharmacies and PPMVs across 34 of Nigeria’s 36 states, with regional hubs to enable a seamless experience across the country. 

    Store owners can access more than 8,000 vetted products via the mobile app, with same-day delivery and inventory financing to minimise cash-flow friction for routine orders and maximise sales opportunities. The startup also provides facility financing, payment solutions and inventory management solutions that makes it easier for store owners to run their business more efficiently and profitably. For pharmaceutical manufacturers, Remedial Health provides an effective route-to-market for their products, as well as data-driven insights into local markets that can be leveraged for more effective planning and decision making.

    This new funding will enable Remedial Health to deepen the reach of these services across Nigeria and deliver more game changing solutions to drive greater efficiency across the pharmaceutical value chain. 

    According to Samuel Okwuada, CEO and co-founder of Remedial Health, “We are delighted to have raised these funds, particularly with the wider context of the global funding downturn and the wide range of economic headwinds in Nigeria. Our continued growth has put us in a strong position to deliver our mission of creating a tech-enabled, pharmacy-centred healthcare network and we are looking forward to leveraging these funds to achieve more success.”

    Gbenga Ajayi, Partner, Head of Africa, QED Investors, said “The success that Remedial Health has enjoyed to date is an indication of the market gap that exists, and the value they provide 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. The Remedial Health team is perfectly positioned to solve this problem because of its unique positioning as a partner across the entire pharmaceutical value chain and the unique backgrounds of the founders as both seasoned phama operators and technology professionals. We are very excited to be on this journey and to support this next phase of the company and to bring our fintech DNA to bear in what is an already positive growth journey.”

    Kola Aina, Founding Partner of Ventures Platform, said “We are incredibly proud to have been part of Remedial Health’s journey since the earliest phase of the company’s development. This partnership exemplifies our mission to support  category leaders before they become obvious. Remedial Health’s dedication to improving Nigeria’s pharmaceutical value chain is critical  and their success in securing this $12 million funding demonstrates their remarkable growth and the management’s tenacity over the years. Our investment in this round represents our continued belief in their mission to deliver financial services to neighbourhood pharmacies and drive deeper growth in the pharmaceutical sector.” 

  • VENCO secures $670,000 pre-seed funding to deliver digital solutions for residential and commercial properties in Africa

    VENCO secures $670,000 pre-seed funding to deliver digital solutions for residential and commercial properties in Africa

    VENCO, a technology company that provides solutions to enhance living experiences in residential and commercial communities in Africa, has secured $670,000 in an oversubscribed pre-seed funding round to scale its all-in-one technology platform that manages collections, service charge administration, utilities vending, visitor access and other services associated with multi-unit property developments across Africa. 

    The pre-seed funding round was led by Zrosk Investment Management, with participation from other strategic investors including Voltron Capital, Decimal Point Ventures, Fast Forward Fund, Tayo Oviosu (CEO of Paga), Odun Eweniyi (COO of Piggyvest), Oo Nwoye, Desigan Chinniah, Dakar Network Angels and Viktoria Business Angel Network. Starting with Nigeria and Kenya, the new funding will support VENCO to build out its credit delivery infrastructure for rent and household spending, as well as its expansion into other cities and countries on the continent. 

    With growing urbanisation across Africa, multi-property developments have emerged as the preferred mode of delivering residential and commercial real estate. Of the 2.5 million households in Nigeria that earn more than $1,000 per month, 80 percent live in multi-property communities. 25 percent of their income is spent on rent and 50 percent is spent on other household needs, including consumables, utilities, internet data, cable TV and other services. This market for household spending represents a $22.5 billion opportunity in Nigeria, and $100 billion across Africa. 

    However, with the process of managing various aspects of life in these communal developments being largely manual and paper-based, there are many inefficiencies that negatively impact residents’ experience and profitability for property owners. For example, the default-rate on service charge collection for multi-property developments in Africa can be as high as 60 percent, which means that property managers are either out of pocket or forced to operate on insufficient funds. Even when payments are collected, the manual process means reconciliation is error-prone and theft is common.

    Co-founded by Chude Osiegbu (CEO), Reagan Mbitiru (CTO) and Uzochukwu Alor (COO), VENCO automates collection and reconciliation of all dues and payments in communities resulting in improved receipts and better margins for property owners. For residents, self-service tools provided by VENCO make processes such as visitor control, issue and emergency management as well as utilities-vending more seamless. With residents able to build an economic profile based on their financial transactions on the VENCO platform, they can now access a range of embedded financial services, including insurance, credit facilitation for rent, service charges and household spending along with many other services. 

    VENCO has recorded over 200 percent growth over the last 9 months and is currently in 6 cities and more than 12,000 property units across Nigeria and Kenya. Since January 2022, it has processed more than $10 million in transaction value via its platform. The company is also partnering with e-commerce platforms to enable easier access to merchants within and around the community, energy companies to ensure reliable energy metering and collections, and other service providers to improve the overall experience in these communities. 

    According to Chude Osiegbu, CEO and co-founder of VENCO, “the manual nature of many processes associated with life in residential and commercial communities in Africa presents many issues that we believe technology can fix. Beyond this, we also want to leverage technology to deliver new services and experiences that will transform how people live in Africa’s growing cities and create better value for everyone across the board. Our goal is to deliver technology solutions that will enhance living experiences across the continent, and we are excited to have raised these funds to support that mission”

    Samson Esemuede, Managing Director, and Chief Investment Officer at Zrosk Investment Management said “The team at VENCO are building a platform that allows for the validation of the GDP of the African household. Not only does a platform like VENCO allow for significant improvement in the experience of African residents, facility managers and property owners, but it could also potentially unlock at scale the sort of financial services the African consumer really needs. We view VENCO as both a SAAS and a financial inclusion play with a potential for strong multiplicative impact across the continent. We are excited to support the VENCO team in achieving their vision”.