mPharma raises $17million in new funding round

Ghana’s healthcare startup, mPharma, has raised $17 million in a new funding round led by Novastar along with UK’s development finance arm, CDC Group and previous investors including Dr. Daniel Vasella, ex-chief executive of Novartis, Silicon Valley investor Jim Breyer and Dompe Holdings. According to the CEO, Gregory Rockson, this round actually closed before the COVID-19 hit hard.

The company also announced the appointment of Helena Foulkes, former president of CVS, a US based pharmacy retail chain, to its board.

Rockson, in a series of tweets, said, the company raised the funds because it had to invest more to turnaround the business it acquired (Kenya’s Haltons pharmacy) after doubling its revenue in 2018. This placed some stress on its balance sheet.

“In October, we had a board retreat in Kenya and presented a plan to grow our retail platform through our QualityRx model. It required upfront investments. We decided to raise the capital to build this platform. The fundraise was not easy despite the tremendous growth we had.,” he adds.

“Growth has brought challenges I never expected but the key thing for me has always been to focus on the progress we are making towards building a better company. Covid-19 gave me clarity and urge to make decisions I was always hesitant to make.”

“I believe we are in a strong position to weather this storm. We generated more revenue last month than we did in all of Q1. We even made a profit. We will continue to invest in building long term success for patients. Getting people in good health is wealth for mPharma.”

To date, mPharma has raised over $40 million since its seed round in 2015. In 2017, it raised $6.6 million after raising a seed round of $5 million in 2015.

mPharma improves access to medicine by providing innovative financing and inventory management solutions to hospitals, pharmacies and patients. Its proprietary Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) system is already being used in over 250 pharmacies across West, East and Southern Africa in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Zambia and Zimbabwe.