Funded by the Gates Foundation, the report titled “Leading Innovations Enabling Health Product Access in Africa’‘, finds that, amid difficult macro- economic realities and dwindling investment in African technology ecosystems, a select number of African health innovators are emerging as leaders.

Having operated for 10 years on average, the 24 leading innovators collectively now partner with 100+ manufacturers and 75 public health institutions, reaching around 50,000 providers (who serve hundreds of thousands of patients per day) and delivering health products to millions of consumers directly.

Kasha made news capturing Series B investment last year, and has since gone on to build its health technology access platform and report annual revenues of more than $50 million in 2023 – the highest ever recorded by Salient’s research to date.

Like Kasha, innovators that offer digitally-enabled Order and Inventory Management services to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and drug shops appear dominant amongst the leading companies, making up 13 of the 24 featured innovations, with operations in 30 countries.

Four leading Online Pharmacies are reaching nearly 10 million customers and generating median annual revenues of nearly $9M.

The other categories featured are innovations in Product Protection and Visibility, Medical Drone Delivery and Data Analytics.

While leading innovators now appear positioned to deliver more substantive impact, they require targeted engagement from governments, donors, industry and global health institutions to transform access for unserved populations and improve the cost-effectiveness of care.

To leverage leading innovators’ models in driving increases in access, governments, industry, donors and global health agencies should: simplify regulatory pathways; explore innovators’ ability to generate cost- savings for health systems, pursuing partnerships when the evidence is strong; and evolve contracting and payment systems to enable innovators to partner in healthcare delivery systems at larger scale.

The 24 leading innovators featured are (in alphabetical order):

1. Chefaa,
2. DrugStoc,
3. Field Inc,
4. Figorr,
5. Grinta,
6. HealthPlus,
7. Kasha,
8. LifeBank,
9. Maisha Meds,
10. Meditect,
11. mPedigree,
12. MYDAWA,
13. Pendulum,
14. PharmaSecure,
15. Remedial Health,
16. RxAll,
17. Sobrus,
18. Sproxil,
19. Talamus Health,
20. VIA Global Health,
21. Viebeg,
22. Wingcopter,
23. Yodawy and
24. Zipline.

Speaking on the launch of the report, Yomi Kazeem, engagement manager at Salient Advisory, commented:

‘’The findings underscore the remarkable resilience and growing impact of African supply chain innovators. Having tracked healthtech startups for many years, the emergence of a group of leading innovators is exciting to report. Local and global public health communities must increasingly recognize and leverage the innovators in developing reliable and resilient health supply chains.”

Ann Allen, Senior Program Officer at Gates Foundation, commented:

“Technology-enabled innovations have the potential to help reverse long-running challenges in African health systems, while creating local jobs and strengthening local health markets. The report confirms innovators are increasingly positioned to deliver on this promise. However, there is more to be done as leveraging these innovations to truly transform cost-effective access for millions of unserved Africans will require concerted efforts from governments, industry and global health agencies alike.”

To download the full market intelligence report, please click here.

Yodawy will utilize the investment to bolster its expansion goal into markets in the Middle East and Africa, as the startup leverages new opportunities.

The fund will also help in the growth of its Care Program for chronic patients, which offers monthly medication refills to enrolled patients, and processes daily deliveries across 38 cities in Egypt. 

Global Ventures co-led the round with Delivery Hero Ventures, which has Yodawy as its first African investment. Other investors were Singapore-based AAIC Investment, Saudi’s Dallah Al-Baraka and existing investors such as Middle East Venture Partners (MEVP), C Ventures, and P1 Ventures.

Yodawy enables pharmacies go digital so as to increase their customer reach and boost sales via its e-commerce offering. Insurance companies and hospitals can also automate approvals, save costs and improve customer experience through the platform. 

Yodawy’s offerings make it possible for patients to receive deliveries at their doorstep, while pharmaceuticals, leverages its network of pharmacies to ensure seamless consumer reach. 

Yodawy affirms to currently be the primary partner for the almost 300 corporates in the Egyptian market, and serves their patients – employees – needing chronic medication. The Giza-based health tech upstart, which employs a B2B2C model, has partnered with 20 health insurance companies and 500 doctors; 3,000 pharmacies have processed over 4 million prescriptions via individuals in these corporates. 

The company recently launched a flagship e-prescription gateway that lets physicians go paperless, with seven insurance companies and health management organizations participating in the program, resulting in more than 2,000 e-prescriptions generated daily. Its revenue has grown by 400% since its last priced round 18 months ago.

Included in Yodawy’s plans is the continuous automation of its operations, enabling prescription processing at a larger scale, and strengthening existing tech-enabled fulfilment capabilities to serve a rapidly growing base of patients.