Remedial Health Raises $4.4M In Seed Funding

Remedial said it has raised $4.4 million in seed funding to accelerate its expansion across Nigeria and to provide access to credit for inventory purchases for its growing customer base of neighbourhood pharmacies, Proprietary Patent Medicine Vendors (PPMVs) and hospitals in the country.

Alongside Global Ventures, Tencent, Y Combinator, Cathexis Ventures, LightSpeed Venture Partners Scout Fund, Ventures Platform, Alumni Ventures, True Capital Management, also participated in the round, which had prominent angel investors such as Guillaume Luccisano and Christopher Golda.

According to Remedial, the new funding will support the rollout of its services across the rest of Nigeria, and also lay the groundwork for expansion across Africa in 2023.

Despite various reports suggesting that access to credit can improve earnings for businesses by up to 50 per cent, less than 20 per cent of African SMEs have access to a line of credit. This is largely because traditional financial institutions struggle to accurately assess the creditworthiness of these businesses and are as such unable to offer them any credit.

With African countries importing most of their medicines, the impact of various global events over the last three years — from the COVID-19 pandemic to rising inflation — has also led to a sharp increase in the price of medicines. To mitigate the rising prices, these healthcare businesses often buy in bulk upfront to get the best prices.

Many business owners also typically have to leave their premises to buy products in open-air medicine markets; visiting multiple stalls within the market to get the best deals for more than 300 SKUs on average.

Remedial Health provides a range of solutions, including its digital procurement and PMR (patient medication records) platforms that make it easier for neighbourhood pharmacies, PPMVs and hospitals to access affordable and authentic retail medicines. Healthcare businesses can source vetted medications at prices the same, or better, than open-air medicine market prices — with 24-hour delivery to their practice via Remedial Health’s logistics network.

In addition to procurement, pharmacies and PPMVs can access credit to fund inventory purchases and provide loans and salary advances for employees.

According to Remedial, healthcare businesses can benefit from group/bulk buying discounts, time-saving and improved efficiency, access to credit to improve their earnings, and additional revenue from providing financial services and other primary healthcare services by leveraging remedial’s tech-enabled platform.

Manufacturers also benefit from an efficient supply chain, a clear and instant route-to-market for their products and real-time intelligence on product utilization to improve decision-making on forecasting, production and distribution.

According to the startup, more than 60 per cent of its customers have used the product and have seen more than 50 per cent growth in their average basket sizes. The startup has also seen more than 6x growth in the number of customers on its platform.