Toyota Tsusho Corporation (“Toyota Tsusho”) has announced the formation of Health54 SAS (“H54”), a corporate venture capital firm specialised on startup investment in Africa’s rapidly growing field of health technology. In addition, on October 12, 2022, the company made its first investment in Lifestores Healthcare (“Lifestores”), a healthcare startup in Nigeria.

Overview of Health54 SAS

Toyota Tsusho Group is stepping up its efforts to offer Africa with consistent and inexpensive access to high-quality healthcare. In addition to licenced pharmaceutical production in Morocco and Algeria, the Group’s pharmaceutical wholesale business supplies roughly 31,000 different types of pharmaceuticals each day to approximately 8,600 pharmacies and hospitals in 22 African nations. Furthermore, in April 2022, Toyota Tsusho Group invested in Goodlife Pharmacies in Kenya, expanding its company into the pharmaceutical retail market in Africa for the first time.

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CFAO thinks that innovation and digitization are crucial to addressing Africa’s socioeconomic concerns, and has formed H54, which invests in innovative healthcare firms. Toyota Tsusho Group, in collaboration with Mobility54, supports the business expansion of startups with the goal of establishing synergies with current businesses and building long-term win-win collaborations.

In 2020, Lifestores, the first investment of Health54, established OGApharmacy, an online pharmaceutical marketplace for hospitals and pharmacies, with the purpose of giving Nigerians with widespread access to affordable and dependable pharmaceuticals. By pooling their purchasing needs, OGApharmacy enables small shops to get items from leading manufacturers without having to go through many actors in the value chain, and gives up to 20% off standard selling rates. Lifestores also has a FinTech component and can provide its consumers with customised financing solutions and credit conditions. Lifestores presently collaborates with 600 hospitals and pharmacies and provides medications to approximately 10% of the Nigerian market, or approximately 100,000 patients. Its mission is to deliver dependable and reasonably priced medications and medical services.

Toyota Tsusho Group will use this investment in Lifestores to create a supply chain in the pharmaceutical retail area in Africa, with the goal of providing high-quality drugs and medical services to as many people as possible.

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Based on the “WITH AFRICA FOR AFRICA” attitude, Toyota Tsusho Group strives to expand alongside the people and communities of Africa, and will strengthen its healthcare business in order to contribute even more to African health.

Charles Rapulu Udoh

Charles Rapulu Udoh is a Lagos-based lawyer, who has several years of experience working in Africa’s burgeoning tech startup industry. He has closed multi-million dollar deals bordering on venture capital, private equity, intellectual property (trademark, patent or design, etc.), mergers and acquisitions, in countries such as in the Delaware, New York, UK, Singapore, British Virgin Islands, South Africa, Nigeria etc. He’s also a corporate governance and cross-border data privacy and tax expert. 
As an award-winning writer and researcher, he is passionate about telling the African startup story, and is one of the continent’s pioneers in this regard. You can book a session and speak with him using the link: https://insightsbyexperts.com/view_expert/charles-rapulu-udoh