Nigeria’s Remedial Health has received $1 million in pre-seed funding to digitize pharmacies and combat the supply of counterfeit and substandard pharmaceutical products in Nigeria, with plans to expand to the rest of Africa in the future.
With participation from Ingressive Capital, Voltron Capital, Opeyemi Awoyemi’s (Jobberman co-founder) Angel Syndicate Fund, and other angel investors, including Flutterwave’s Olugbenga “GB” Agboola and Victor Asemota, the round was led by Global Ventures and Ventures Platform.
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A portion of the fresh funds will be used to expand the startup’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) service to a wider audience.
To present, the business has over 300 pharmacies utilizing its app to place orders, with a few others using WhatsApp.
A Look At What The Startup Does
Remedial Health began as a private label business, focusing on contract manufactured products from markets such as India, which they would then sell to pharmacies in Nigeria, founded in 2020 by Samuel Okwuada, a trained pharmacist and self-taught software developer, and his co-founder Victor Benjamin.
“That business was pretty small. But at least we were in the market and we were growing,” said Okwuada, who pursued his MSc in Pharmacy at the University of East Anglia in the U.K.
Okwuada began his business path while still at university, building SaaS solutions, before partnering with Benjamin, a pharmaceutical field sales representative, to establish Remedial with his IT knowledge and training as a pharmacist.
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Remedial Health began moving in a different path months after launching the firm, due to a shift in market demand and supply chain disruptions aggravated by the COVID pandemic, as their customers began placing orders for items that were not part of their private label offering.
They designed a patient medication records (PMR) system that made sourcing easy and digitized pharmacies to keep up with the rising demand and streamline the ordering procedure.
Remedial Health’s technology allows pharmacists to manage their operations, place and track orders, all of which are said to be fulfilled within 24 hours, according to the firm. Patients’ medical records are also stored on the platform, which also provides reporting and accounting.
“For those using the system, because we can basically see their shelves, we are solving their supply issues by ensuring that they’re getting the products when they need them. And so they don’t have to go to the market and waste time by going through 20 to 30 individual distributors to buy all the medicines and supplies that they need.”
Recognizing that some markets would take time to digitize, Remedial has created an online shop that lets pharmacy operators who do not use its system to place orders through an app.
“We don’t force everyone to use the system because we don’t assume that every single pharmacy has a computer and constant power supply. And because we know that the major problem is supply, we make it possible for them to access the procurement system on their phones.”
Remedial uses the technology to do inventory management, which reduces stockouts by shifting products that aren’t moving in one pharmacy to areas where supply is scarce or demand is high.
For a speedier turnaround time, the business has a main distribution center supported by hubs dispersed across its operating regions, allowing it to “reach any pharmacy from any of our hubs within an hour.”
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Last-mile delivery is handled by its in-house logistics team or by partners, but the company plans to combine its system with a big logistics company in Nigeria to provide a seamless end-to-end solution.
Remedial Health now serves six states in West Africa, with aspirations to grow across the country and into other African markets by the end of the year. They also intend to expand their presence in the locations where they now operate.
Remedial sources its medicines from over 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers, including GSK, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, as well as Nigeria’s Orange Drugs, Emzor, and Fidson Healthcare, which are all members of the Y Combinator Winter 2022 cohort.
The startup also lends credit to pharmacies, with the intention of expanding the service’s reach.
“The pharmacies don’t have to pay for products upfront; in some cases, they pay deposits, maybe 20%, and then pay the balance over time, but depending on how well we’ve known them, it can even be 100% financing.”
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