mPharma, a leading health startup in Ghana and one of the most valuable health startups in Africa has secured $17 million in its latest funding round. The Accra-based company has also announced the appointment to its board of Helena Foulkes, former president of CVS Pharmacy, the largest pharmacy retail chain in the United States.
“Bringing a DFI with extensive government contacts across Africa would improve our appeal and help strengthen our corporate governance because of the ESG [environmental, social and governance] rules under which they operate,” said chief executive officer at mPharma, Greg Rockson.
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Here Is All You Need To Know
- Investors in this round of funding include the CDC Group, the UK’s development finance arm, alongside several of mPharma ’s previous investors including Dr. Daniel Vasella, ex-chief executive of Novartis, Silicon Valley investor Jim Breyer and Dompe Holdings, the family office of the Italian pharmaceutical giant.
- According to Rockson, this round of funding was nothing short of “opportunistic” as the company had been looking for a chance to work with a development finance institution with deep roots in Africa like CDC.
- Rockson says mPharma’s work sees it increasingly interacting with government agencies on the continent.
- mPharma has raised over $50 million since its seed round in 2015.
- Last year, barely six years old, mPharma, which manages prescription drug inventory for pharmacies and their suppliers, acquired Kenya’s second-largest pharmacy chain, Haltons. With that transaction, mPharma entered the East African regional market for the first time, meaning that the young Ghanaian company would now control 20 Haltons stores spread across Kenya’s capital Nairobi and the second most populated coastal city of Mombasa.
- Rockson said it has, however, expanded the number of outlets to 30 and seen revenue double.
“We had mapped out a plan for expansion when we bought Haltons and soon paid off its debt and owed salaries to build trust with the staff, but the lockdown has cut our hours and slowed growth,” he said.
Why The Investors Invested
CDC Group, the lead investor in this round has been through the Catalyst Fund been investing directly in businesses.
“The mission of mPharma to make pharmaceuticals more affordable and accessible is striking,” says Foulkes. CVS is well known in the US for its rewards loyalty program and using customer retail data to target promotions. “I’m interested in the different ways this young company can grow, they have their own chain, loyalty programs, there’s plenty of potential,” says Foulkes
Foulkes was introduced to Rockson by board member and early Facebook investor Jim Breyer. He had prior to this present role spent 25 years at CVS, before she left in February 2018 to run Hudson Bay, the North American retail group parent of Saks Fifth Avenue. She stepped down from the role in March.
A Look At What Startup mPharma Does
MPharma tracks which drugs are available at any given time and where, giving patients reliable access to medicines and — with better inventory management — more competitive pricing. Using its proprietary Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) system and QualityRx franchise model, which replicates similar features seen with co-operative retailers in the US and Europe, employing common branding, inventory systems and collective purchasing, mPharma is attempting to shake the market up a bit. Both proprietary rights are already being used in over 250 pharmacies in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
“We processed almost 6000 prescriptions in our database… But our mission is much more complicated than just giving software. We invest in the hospitals we select. We realized that if we wanted to bring onboard health facilities we had to go beyond just thinking about software, we had to look at the whole ecosystem. So we connect hospitals and pharmacies to our network and we bundle connectivity, device and the application as a service,’’ Rockson told Startupbrics.
Charles Rapulu Udoh
Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer who has advised startups across Africa on issues such as startup funding (Venture Capital, Debt financing, private equity, angel investing etc), taxation, strategies, etc. He also has special focus on the protection of business or brands’ intellectual property rights ( such as trademark, patent or design) across Africa and other foreign jurisdictions.
He is well versed on issues of ESG (sustainability), media and entertainment law, corporate finance and governance.
He is also an award-winning writer.
He could be contacted at udohrapulu@gmail.com