Ghanaian Startup mPharma Secures $17m Funding

• Ghanaian health tech startup mPharma has secured a $17-million funding led by the CDC Group’s UK development finance arm.
• Founded in 2013 by Gregory Rockson, Daniel Shoukimas and James Finucane, the Accra-based medicine benefits and inventory manager aims to improve patients’ access to affordable, high-quality medicines.
• Based on recorded transactions, the business information platform Crunchbase reports that mPharma has raised a total of $38.3 million in funding since its inception, including this latest investment.

Ghanaian health tech startup mPharma has secured a $17-million funding led by the CDC Group’s UK development finance arm. Existing investors including former Novartis CEO and chairman Daniel Vasella, Silicon Valley investor Jim Breyer and Dompe Holdings also participated in the investment round.

The Accra-based medicine benefits and inventory manager, founded in 2013 by Gregory Rockson, Daniel Shoukimas and James Finucane, aims at increasing patients’ access to affordable, high-quality medicines.

Quartz Africa announced the raise in an article yesterday, adding that Helena Foulkes, former president of CVS, the largest pharmacy retail chain in the US, had been appointed to the company’s board.

The new announcement comes after mPharma raised over $9-million in a Series-B funding round in January last year. It didn’t disclose the investors involved in that round at the time, but Crunchbase lists them as Martin Li, Justin Mateen, Golden Palm Investments and 4DX Ventures.

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Quartz Africa said the latest funding will help the company to expand its vendor management inventory (VMI) system and QualityRx platforms which are being used by 250 pharmacies in Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Last month Rockson announced in a tweet that the startup was preparing to equip and re-use private laboratories in Covid-19 testing centres.

He said the company would launch in Ghana before extending the programme to Nigeria, Kenya and Zambia.

The company revealed in a newsletter that it also collaborated with the Red Cross to develop testing centres in “fragile” countries starting with Zimbabwe.

In April of last year, mPharma was named one of five winners of the 2019 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship.

Based on recorded transactions, Crunchbase business information platform reports that mPharma has raised a total of $38.3-million in funding since its inception, including this latest investment.