Remedial Health is excited to announce that they have raised $4.4 million in seed funding to accelerate expansion across Nigeria and to provide access to credit for inventory purchases for the growing customer base of neighbourhood pharmacies, Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) and hospitals in the country.
Since launching Remedial Health in 2021, they have focused on delivering solutions for neighbourhood pharmacies and PPMVs who are responsible for more than 80 percent of the retail medicines sold in Africa. These businesses also serve as the frontline of healthcare delivery and a vital component of how they safeguard lives and livelihoods across the continent.
However, just like most small businesses across the continent, pharmacies, chemists and PPMVs struggle to access the credit they need to grow their businesses. Despite various reports suggesting that access to credit can improve earnings for businesses by up to 50 percent, less than 20 percent of African SMEs have access to a line of credit. This is largely because traditional financial institutions struggle to accurately assess the creditworthiness of these businesses and are as such unable to offer them any credit.
An opaque and fragmented supply chain also means medicines are often up to 100 percent more expensive than they should be. With African countries importing most of their medicines, the impact of various global events over the last three years — from the COVID-19 pandemic to rising inflation — has also led to a sharp increase in the price of medicines. To mitigate the rising prices, these healthcare businesses often buy in bulk upfront to get the best prices. Many business owners also typically have to leave their premises to buy products in open-air medicine markets; visiting multiple stalls within the market to get the best deals for more than 300 SKUs on average.
Digitizing the pharmaceutical supply chain in Africa
At Remedial Health, they provide a range of solutions, including its digital procurement and PMR (patient medication records) platforms that make it easier for neighbourhood pharmacies, PPMVs and hospitals to access affordable and authentic retail medicines. Healthcare businesses can source vetted medications at prices the same, or better, than open-air medicine market prices — with 24-hour delivery to their practice via Remedial Health’s logistics network. In addition to procurement, pharmacies and PPMVs can access credit to fund inventory purchases and provide loans and salary advances for employees.
We want to thank our investors Global Ventures, Tencent, Y Combinator, Cathexis Ventures, LightSpeed Venture Partners Scout Fund, Ventures Platform, Alumni Ventures, True Capital Management, and prominent angel investors such as Guillaume Luccisano and Christopher Golda that participated in the round. We look forward to working with you all to address various challenges that have hampered healthcare businesses’ growth for many years, and make it easier to safeguard lives and livelihoods across the continent for years to come
There is so much to be excited about what the future holds for us as a company and for healthcare distribution in Africa in general. We are looking forward to taking you all on this journey with us.
– Remedial Health.
