Remedial Health raises $1 million in pre-seed funding to digitize pharmacies in Nigeria

Remedial Health has received a $1 million pre-seed investment to digitize pharmacies and reduce the supply of counterfeit and substandard pharmaceutical products, beginning in Nigeria and expanding to the rest of Africa.

Global Ventures and Ventures Platform led the round, with participation from Ingressive Capital, Voltron Capital, Opeyemi Awoyemi’s (Jobberman co-founder) Angel Syndicate Fund, and other angel investors, including Olugbenga “GB” Agboola and Victor Asemota of Flutterwave.

A portion of the new funding will be used to expand the startup’s buy-now-pay-later (BNPL) offering, allowing it to reach a wider audience.

Remedial Health was founded in 2020 by Samuel Okwuada, a trained pharmacist and self-taught software developer, and his co-founder Victor Benjamin. It 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.

“That was a small business.” But, at the very least, we were in the market and growing,” said Okwuada, who earned his MSc in Pharmacy from the University of East Anglia in the United Kingdom.

Okwuada began his entrepreneurial journey while still in college, building SaaS products before combining his experience in technology and training as a pharmacist to launch Remedial with Benjamin, a pharmaceutical field sales agent.

Remedial Health began moving in a different direction months after starting the business, due to a shift in market demand and supply chain disruptions exacerbated by the Covid pandemic, as their customers began placing orders for products that were not part of their private label offering.

To meet rising demand and streamline the ordering process, they created a patient medication records (PMR) system that simplified sourcing and digitized pharmacies.

Remedial Health’s system enables pharmacies to manage their operations, create and track orders, and fulfill them within 24 hours, according to the startup. The platform also stores medical records for patients and facilitates reporting and accounting.

“For those who use the system, because we can see their shelves, we are resolving their supply issues by ensuring that they get the products when they need them.” So they don’t have to go to the market and waste time going through 20 to 30 different distributors to get all of the medicines and supplies they require.”

Recognizing that there is a market segment that will take time to digitize, Remedial has created an online shop that allows pharmacy owners who do not use its system to place orders via an app.

“We don’t force everyone to use the system because we don’t assume every pharmacy has a computer and a steady power supply.” And, because we know that supply is a major issue, we allow them to access the procurement system from their phones.”

The system assists Remedial in inventory monitoring, which reduces stockouts by redirecting products that are not moving in one pharmacy to areas where supply is limited or demand is high.

For a faster turnaround time, the startup has a main distribution center supported by hubs spread across its regions of operation, allowing it to “reach any pharmacy from any of our hubs within an hour.”

Last mile delivery is handled by its in-house logistics operation or by partners, but the company intends to integrate its system with a major logistics player in Nigeria to provide a seamless end-to-end solution.

Remedial Health currently serves six states in West Africa, with plans to expand across the country and enter additional African markets before the end of the year. They also intend to expand their reach in the regions where they currently operate.

Remedial, which is also a member of Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator accelerator’s Winter 2022 cohort, sources its products from over 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers, including GSK, Pfizer, and Astrazeneca, as well as Nigerian companies Orange Drugs, Emzor, and Fidson Healthcare.

To date, the startup has over 300 pharmacies using its app to place orders, and a number of others using WhatsApp. It also provides credit to pharmacies, with plans to expand the service’s coverage.

“The pharmacies do not have to pay for products upfront; in some cases, they pay deposits, perhaps 20%, and then pay the balance over time, but depending on how well we know them, it can even be 100% financing.”

Remedial Health has joined the growing list of tech-enabled businesses that are digitizing pharmaceutical supply chains, which are currently fragmented and inefficient, leading to the proliferation of fake and substandard products in markets.

Other notable startups in the space include MyDawa in Kenya, mPharma in Ghana, and DrugStoc in Nigeria.

According to its founders, Remedial Health’s goal is to not only address supply chain issues, but also to bring primary healthcare closer to people.

“These pharmacies are less than a 15-minute walk from people’s homes, and I believe that is the way to transform healthcare in Africa — by adding diagnostic services and a doctor to these neighborhood pharmacies — by literally bringing everything to the people, we would truly transform healthcare in Africa,” Okwuada said.