GHANA – mPharma, a Ghanaian health tech startup, has raised US$35 million in a Series D funding round.
The financing includes US$30 million in equity and US$5 million in debt from CitiBank, for a total of US$65 million raised by mPharma.
JAM Fund, a venture capital firm founded by Tinder co-founder Justin Mateen, Unbound, a growth investment firm founded by Shravin Mittal, managing director Bharti Global Limited (Bharti family investment arm), and Lux Capital, a New York City-based VC firm investing in science and technology ventures, all participated in the round.
Northstar, Social Capital, Novastar, and TO Ventures are among the investors that participated in the round.
According to CEO Gregory Rockson, the latest round of funding will be used to build the startup’s data infrastructure, triple its talent pool over the next three years, and support expansion plans in existing and new markets. It will also use the funding to launch its e-commerce platform for pharmaceuticals.
“We are hiring over 100 engineers to build all our technology in-house and this includes a massive data infrastructure we are creating,” mPharma co-founder and CEO Gregory Rockson said.
“We are also investing in other skilled talent like doctors and nurses, professionals that are critical in the work we do.”
The company is currently establishing a network of community pharmacies across Africa in order to become the primary healthcare provider of choice for millions of people living in the region.
To provide comprehensive services, mPharma recently launched an ecommerce platform — the Mutti Online Pharmacy — that allows its members to purchase pharmaceutical products.
They are initially only dispensing over-the-counter medication in Ghana, but plan to expand to include prescription drugs in the near future.
mPharma’s Mutti Online Pharmacy is now one of a few exclusively digital pharmacies with operations in Africa, along with Kenya’s MyDawa.
Now eight years in operation, mPharma specializes in vendor-managed inventory, retail pharmacy operations, and market intelligence for hospitals, pharmacies, and patients.
In October of last year, the startup expanded its portfolio to include telehealth services, capitalizing on the telemedicine boom that followed the COVID pandemic.
The startup is currently present in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, as well as Gabon, and serves approximately a million patients per year via over 300 partner pharmacies.
In 2019, the startup purchased Halton, Kenya’s second-largest pharmacy chain, gaining control of 27 locations across the country.
It also recently acquired a 55% stake in Uganda’s Vine Pharmacy, which was previously owned by the Abraaj Group.
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