Source: PSI
From the newsletter
At least $27.6 million was raised in December by nine healthcare startups across the continent. The highest funding amount in this cycle, $23 million, went to Nawah Scientific for health research. CarePoint received the second highest amount of $3 million, followed by MPharma with $1 million, both to improve digital health services.
NuvoteQ and OneHealth raised $200,000 each. Welo Health and Medpharma got $100,000 each while both Quro Medical and Namola received undisclosed amounts.
The funding supports different digital health and research services across the continent, with four of the startups based in southern Africa, four in West Africa and one in North Africa.
More details
Only one of the nine funded startups, NuvoteQ, has female-only founders. Six others; Namola, CarePoint, Nawah Scientific, OneHealth, Medpharma and MPharma have male only founders. Quro Medical and Welo Health have gender diverse founding teams. In terms of management, seven of the nine companies have male CEOs.
Nawah Scientific, based in Egypt, closed a $23 million Series A funding round comprising both equity and debt. The funding was led by Life Ventures Holding, Empire M, AfricInvest, Den Ventures and Elsewedy. The firm plans to use the funds to build a 10,000 square metre global research and development centre in Rwanda and a double lab capacity in Egypt to help expand its operations.
Ghana-based CarePoint secured $3 million in debt financing, the second-largest deal in the cycle. The funding will support the acquisition and turnaround of underperforming clinics and further investment in its proprietary digital health platform. Founded in 2017, CarePoint operates a hybrid, tech-enabled healthcare model in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya and Egypt.
MPharma, also based in Ghana, raised $1 million in debt funding to strengthen its prescription drug inventory solution for pharmacies and suppliers. Founded in 2013, the company tackles Africa’s broken drug supply chain by reducing frequent stock-outs. Its platform enables pharmacies across the continent to reliably provide essential drugs to patients.
NuvoteQ from South Africa and Nigeria’s OneHealth were awarded $200,000 each in grant funding. NuvoteQ develops software products to support clinical and pharmaceutical research organisations. OneHealth delivers a mobile-first pharmacy and healthcare platform to improve access to medicines and essential healthcare services.
Welo Health in South Africa and Medpharma in Ghana each received $100,000 in grant funding. Welo Health offers on-demand workplace and homecare services for insurers and corporations, while Medpharma has a digital healthcare system that connects patients to doctors and pharmacies via an app, AI chatbot and more.
Our take
The rise in disease burden as a result of climate change justifies more investment in health research, but the funding imbalance across the nine companies is worrying.
Nawah Scientific captured over 80% of December’s health funding, highlighting the sharp imbalance.
This shows investors are making a single large bet on established research, while the majority of African digital health startups continue to face limited access to meaningful capital.