Afrobility: Africa Tech and Business #37: mPharma - How the HealthTech supply chain platform is providing services to pharmacies & patients across Africa
Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about mPharma - the Ghanaian prescription drug inventory management company. We’ll explore the mPharma story across 6 areas:
- African Health care status & context
- mPharma founding and early history
- Fundraising & Growth
- Product & monetization strategy
- Competitive positioning & potential exit options
- Overall outlook.
This episode was recorded on Sep 5, 2021
Companies discussed: mPharma, Novartis, DrugStoc, Medsaf, Helium Health, Golden Palm Investments, Novastar ventures, CDC & Gates Foundation
Business concepts discussed: Healthcare Logistics, drug distribution, Healthcare technology, Health insurance coverage, Health platforms, IFC & Public policy
Conversation highlights:
- (01:14) - Why we’re talking about mPharma
- (05:18) - Background of Healthcare in Africa
- (19:41) - Healthcare and Pharmacy / Drugs access in Nigeria
- (26:05) - Healthcare context and insurance in Ghana
- (27:15) - mPharma founding and early history - Gregory Rockson background
- (43:56) - Fundraising - Seed, Series A, B, C
- (56:00) - Traction - users, reported revenue, etc.
- (1:01:50) - Product strategy - Quality (Shop) Rx, Mutti, etc.
- (1:11:57) - Monetization strategy
- (1:14:17) - E-Commerce logistics vs healthcare logistics
- (1:21:48) - Competition
- (1:34:22) - Options for exit - mergers, acquisitions
- (1:36:56) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook
- (1:45:36) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook
- (1:55:47) - Recommendations and small wins
Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:
- Recommendation: The World After Capital (Albert Wenger)
- Small win: Setup Galaxy Z Flip3. Different experience.
- Other content: Life expectancy (World Bank database)
Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:
- Recommendation: Donald Shoup on the economics of parking & Heaven and Hell - Kanye West
- Small win: Attended a wedding in New Jersey this past weekend. Lots of fun celebrating with friends. Happy Married Life Joan & Chris!!!
- Other content: Accelerating improvements in Health Product Distribution by Salient Advisory & How the QWERTY Keyboard Broke the Chinese Language
Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Please email info@afrobility.com with your feedback!
Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about you & what you're working on, email us at info@afrobility.com
Investors: We'd also love to link up with you, to partner to drive the ecosystem forward. Contact us at info@afrobility.com
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