Nigeria's Health-Tech Startup Funded By YC Raises $4.4 Million In Seed Funding

Remedial Health, a Nigerian health technology startup, has announced aspirations to scale within the West African nation early this year after securing initial funding.

Invigorated by a recent $4.4 million equity seed round, Remedial Health is also searching for expansion prospects in East and West Africa.

The startup will digitise pharmacies and improve the pharmaceutical supply chain while also adding efficiency to the system.

The YC-backed firm expanded its coverage within the populous nation from six to 16 states from February to date, and it wants to cover the remaining 20 as it sets out to expand its operations nationwide.

With participation from Tencent, Y Combinator, Cathexis Ventures, LightSpeed Venture Partners Scout Fund, Ventures Platform, Alumni Ventures, True Capital Management, and a number of angel investors, including Guillaume Luccisano and Christopher Golda, the most recent round was led by Global Ventures, the VC firm that co-led its pre-seed round.

Remedial Health, established in 2020 by Samuel Okwuada (CEO) and Victor Benjamin (COO), enables pharmacies to easily get pharmaceutical items from well-known producers and distributors, including GSK, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca, as well as Nigeria's Orange Drugs, Emzor, and Fidson Healthcare.

The firm increases pharmaceutical value chains' efficiency and reduces the supply of fraudulent and inferior goods by enabling local pharmacies and hospitals to buy from recognised merchants. Its clients can raise their basket sizes and increase the efficiency of their operations by using its inventory finance and loans features.

According to Okwuada, the firm has experienced rapid growth since the start of the year as a result of the adoption of its digital offering, buy-now-pay-later product, and expansion initiatives.

“We have seen more than 6x growth in the number of customers on our platform since January.

"The feedback we constantly receive about what they like the most about our platform is around the ease and efficiency of our inventory finance offering, the variety of products they can access on our platform and the effectiveness of our procurement process – wherever our customers are based in Nigeria, they typically receive their orders within 24 hours,” adding that last-mile delivery, backed by its distribution hubs, is done in-house or through its partners.

“The launch of our inventory finance product has also attracted more customers to our platform, as they have been able to take advantage of it to grow their businesses and navigate the challenge of rising prices.

"More than 60 per cent of our customers use the inventory finance product and we have seen more than 50 per cent growth in their average basket size since we launched the product,” said Okwuada.

A digital procurement platform offered by the startup helps pharmacies manage their operations by making it easier to place and track orders.

While offering real-time market knowledge that enhances manufacturers' decision-making on forecasts, production, and distribution, it also supports financial reporting and accounting.

Through its patient medication records (PMR) system, pharmacies have access to customer information that simplifies ordering and boosts productivity in the drive to provide more specialised and superior healthcare services in their operational areas.

Like Nigeria’s Drugstoc, Remedial Health is among the increasing health tech startups that are streamlining the pharmaceutical sector across Africa, an industry that has for decades remained fragmented – leading to stock unavailability, quality concerns and erratic pricing.

Global Ventures Principal, Sacha Haider said, “The market opportunity to serve community pharmacies across Africa is significant. In Nigeria alone, 500,000 community pharmacies drive over 80% of a 70-billion-dollar market in annual pharmaceutical sales.

"The team at Remedial Health is proactively addressing challenges including price opacity, poor drug quality control and a very fragmented supply chain through a tech-enabled, pharmacy-centred healthcare network that has allowed over 25% in cost reductions at the point of care.”