#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 [email protected] with your feedback! Founders & Operators: We'd love to hear about you & what you're working on, email us at [email protected] Investors: We'd also love to link up with you, to partner to drive the ecosystem forward. Contact us at [email protected] Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com