YC-backed Remedial Health raises $1 million pre-seed to digitize pharmacies in Nigeria –
Summary
Remedial Health has secured $1 million in pre-seed funding to digitize pharmacies and stem the supply of fake and substandard pharmaceutical products, starting with Nigeria before expanding to the rest of Africa. Founded in 2020 by Samuel Okwuada, a trained pharmacist and self-taught software developer, together with his co-founder Victor Benjamin, Remedial Health started off as a private label business, focused on contract manufactured products from markets like India, which they would then sell to pharmacies in Nigeria. To keep up with the emerging demand, and to streamline the ordering process, they developed a patient medication records (PMR) system that made sourcing easy and digitized pharmacies. The startup has a main distribution center supported by hubs spread across its regions of operation for a faster turnaround time — making it possible to “reach any pharmacy from any of our hubs within an hour.” Last-mile delivery is done through its in-house logistics operation, or by its partners, but the plan is to integrate its system with a major logistics player in Nigeria for a seamless end-to-end solution. Remedial, also part of the Winter 2022 cohort of Silicon Valley’s Y Combinator accelerator, sources its products from over 100 pharmaceutical manufacturers and suppliers, including GSK, Pfizer and AstraZeneca, as well as Nigeria’s Orange Drugs, Emzor and Fidson Healthcare.