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Remedial Health Attracts $12M Series A Funding for Pharmaceutical Efficiency in Nigeria

August 1, 2023

Remedial Health, a Nigerian startup that is disrupting the pharmaceutical industry by digitizing pharmacies and optimizing the value chain, successfully secured a substantial $12 million in Series A equity-debt funding. The primary goal of this investment is to accelerate the expansion of Remedial Health’s operations throughout Nigeria, with a particular focus on the West African region.

The funding round was co-led by Fintech VC firm QED Investors and Ventures Platform. Notably, QED Investors was motivated by the potential for embedded financial opportunities, such as payment and lending services, within the pharmaceutical sector. This marks QED’s third investment in Africa, following its involvement in successful deals with Moniepoint (formerly TeamApt) and Flapkap the previous year. Existing investors, including renowned entities like Y Combinator, Tencent, and Gaingels, also participated in the funding round. Their continued support indicates their confidence in Remedial Health’s vision, execution, and ability to address critical challenges in the pharmaceutical industry.

Why the Investors Invested

The decision of investors to commit a significant amount of $12 million to Remedial Health could be deduced below:

Impressive Traction and Market Demand: Remedial Health’s rapid growth and substantial traction in the Nigerian market were primary factors that convinced investors of its potential. The startup’s ability to attract over 5,000 pharmacies and hospitals within a short period and its threefold increase in client count since November of the previous year demonstrated the strong demand for its platform. Investors recognized that Remedial Health’s ability to gain a considerable market share in a short time indicated a scalable and valuable business proposition.

Addressing Critical Healthcare Challenges: The pharmaceutical industry in Nigeria faces severe challenges, such as the prevalence of counterfeit and substandard medicines, leading to preventable deaths. Remedial Health’s platform directly tackles these issues by sourcing pharmaceutical products from reliable manufacturers and verified distributors. By ensuring the availability of genuine and safe medications, the startup plays a crucial role in improving healthcare outcomes and saving lives in Nigeria and the broader African region.

Strong Market Potential: The World Health Organization’s estimate that approximately 15% of medicine sold in Nigeria is fake or substandard highlights the urgent need for a reliable pharmaceutical distribution platform. Remedial Health’s commitment to addressing this problem and its ability to provide real-time market intelligence to manufacturers for better production and distribution strategies demonstrate a forward-thinking approach that positions the startup for significant long-term growth.

Successful Business Model and Financial Performance: Remedial Health’s B2B model, coupled with its innovative inventory financing system that allows pharmacies to restock without upfront payments, has proven highly successful. This approach has enabled the startup to achieve an impressive sevenfold increase in revenues over the last ten months. Investors were convinced that this robust financial performance and sustainable business model bode well for the startup’s future growth and profitability.

A Look at Remedial Health

Remedial Health was founded in 2021 by Samuel Okwuada (CEO) and Victor Benjamin (COO). The startup’s core mission is to revolutionize the pharmaceutical sector in Nigeria by providing a technology-driven platform that connects pharmacies and hospitals with trusted manufacturers and distributors.

Remedial Health’s platform serves as a centralized source for pharmacies and hospitals to order pharmaceutical products from reliable manufacturers and verified distributors. By doing so, it addresses critical issues, including fluctuating prices and the distribution of counterfeit or substandard products, which have led to numerous preventable deaths in Nigeria and across Africa. The platform’s robust supply chain management ensures the proper handling of products, a significant improvement over the challenges posed by Nigeria’s open drugs market.

Operating primarily in Nigeria, Remedial Health has quickly gained prominence and currently serves over 5,000 pharmacies and hospitals. The startup’s impressive client count expansion, particularly in rural areas where demand is growing, highlights its potential for widespread impact on healthcare accessibility.

Remedial Health sources over 8,000 pharmaceutical products from 300 reputable manufacturers, including industry giants like GSK, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca. The startup’s commitment to timely delivery, app-based inventory management tools, and financial reporting capabilities adds substantial value to its clients.

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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

Why Leading Investors Poured $4.4M Into Nigerian Health-tech Startup Remedial Health

September 21, 2022

Remedial Health, a health technology startup based in Nigeria, recently secured seed funding in the amount of $4.4 million in order to expedite its spread throughout the nation.

Global Ventures, Tencent, Y Combinator, Cathexis Ventures, LightSpeed Venture Partners Scout Fund, Ventures Platform, Alumni Ventures, True Capital Management, and famous angel investors such as Guillaume Luccisano and Christopher Golda contributed to the fundraising backing.

Samuel Okwuada, CEO and co-founder of Remedial Health

This additional finance will help the growth of its services throughout the remainder of Nigeria and set the stage for a 2023 expansion beyond Africa.

The startup will also be able to supply its expanding client base of neighbourhood pharmacies, Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs), and hospitals across the nation with access to credit for inventory purchases with the assistance of the additional cash.

“The funds that we have raised and the strategic support from our investors will enable us to deliver the solutions to address various challenges that have hampered these businesses’ growth for many years, and make it easier to safeguard lives and livelihoods across the continent for years to come,” Samuel Okwuada, CEO and co-founder of Remedial Health, said.

Why The Investors Invested

The startup has gained significant traction since its inception. Remedial Health’s revenues have increased 600% since January 2022, and the firm currently operates in 16 of Nigeria’s 36 states.

“The team at Remedial Health is proactively addressing challenges including price opacity, poor drug quality control and a very fragmented supply chain, head on to create a tech-enabled, pharmacy-centred healthcare network that has allowed over 25 per cent in cost reductions at the point of care. We are excited to partner with Sam on his mission to improve access to quality and affordable healthcare in Africa through optimized pharmaceutical supply chains,” Sacha Haider, Principal at Global Ventures, said.

A Look At What The Startup Does

Remedial Health was founded in 2021 to serve neighbourhood pharmacies and PPMVs, which sell 80% of Africa’s retail pharmaceuticals.

Remedial Health’s digital procurement and PMR systems help pharmacies, PPMVs, and hospitals get economical and authentic retail pharmaceuticals.

Remedial Health’s logistics network delivers verified drugs to doctors’ offices within 24 hours at pricing comparable to open-air markets.

Pharmacies and PPMVs can use credit for inventory purchases, employee loans, and salary advances.

The COVID-19 pandemic and growing inflation have increased the price of medications in Nigeria during the previous three years.

Neighborhood pharmacies and Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs), the major source of medications for most Nigerians, are under increasing pressure to supply lifesaving medicines to their communities and operate their operations successfully.

An opaque supply chain where manufacturers have little or delayed visibility into the frontlines implies pharmacies and PPMVs must frequently make due with what they can acquire rather than what they need.

By using Remedial Health’s tech-enabled platform, pharmacies, PPMVs, and hospitals may benefit from group/bulk buying discounts, time savings, enhanced efficiency, access to finance to improve revenues, and additional income from offering financial services and other primary healthcare services.

Manufacturers benefit from an efficient supply chain, a clear and quick route-to-market, and real-time product usage analytics to optimise forecasting, manufacturing, and distribution decisions.

Remedial Health funding Remedial Health funding

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