Pharmarun wins $10,000 at Pitch2Win 2023. Here is what we know about the startup.

At the third version of Pitch2Win, an occasion that connects startups to buyers, health-tech startup Pharmarun gained $10,000 in equity-free funding. Here is all it is advisable know about the startup and its co-founders, who’ve additionally been mates for 20 years.

In lower than 5 minutes, Teniola Adedeji satisfied Kola Owodunni, Yuzuru Honda, Eloho Omame, Hiro Mashita, and Kola Aina, the 5 judges of Pitch2Win 2023, that her well being tech startup PharmaRun was most deserving of the prized $10,000 equity-free funding. PharmaRun delivers treatment on-demand to the doorsteps of shoppers.  It competed for this funding with 14 early-stage startups that pitched AI, blockchain, fintech, e-commerce, and logistics options at Pitch2Win, an annual occasion that goals to attach startups to potential buyers.

This is not the first time Pharmarun has obtained exterior funding. In 2021, the identical yr it formally launched, the startup obtained an angel funding from Fedha Capital. But over a cellphone name, her greatest pal of 20 years and co-founder, Funmilola Aderemi, informed me that Teniola had registered “Pharmarun” as a enterprise title since 2016.  By that point, Teniola had rounded up an funding banking internship at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and was working as a pharmacist at the National Food and Drug Commission (NAFDAC). Amused at the recollection of what now appears like a self-fulfilling prophecy, Teniola responded, “I just thought the name was really cool. I wanted to own a pharmacy of my own and call it that someday.”

Pharmarun began out as a labour of affection. “Too often, I heard people talking about how only pharmacies situated on the island [a more bourgeois part of Lagos and miles away from the mainland] had a medication that they needed,” remembers Teniola. Working at a pharmacy herself, she witnessed the frustration of shoppers when her office ran out of inventory for a selected drug. Teniola took it upon herself to help clients find the treatment elsewhere, even extending her assist to household and mates. As phrase unfold, folks began reaching out to her on WhatsApp, asking her to find particular medicine and ship them.

The demand for her help elevated considerably throughout the COVID-19 pandemic when motion restrictions made it much more difficult for people to entry pharmacies. “That was when I realised that this could grow into a business,” Teniola displays. She sought the help of her pal, Funmilola, who at the time was a senior product supervisor at a logistics firm, MAX. Late-night calls turned a daily incidence as they collaborated on designing numerous elements of the net platform the place clients may order.

Teniola disclosed that they’d been involved that nobody would belief them sufficient to make funds on the web site till they’d their first paying buyer. She had beforehand operated primarily via WhatsApp and relied on word-of-mouth referrals. To instil confidence in potential shoppers, the web site was designed to incorporate options comparable to “Speak to a pharmacist”, to guarantee customers that actual folks have been behind the platform. Pharmarun’s buyer base has expanded to incorporate people, hospitals that must ship refills of prescriptions to their sufferers, in addition to insurance coverage corporations in search of to make sure well timed refills for his or her policyholders.

The enterprise’s wants grew with time, so Teniola started to seek for a co-founder to steer Pharmarun together with her full-time. Even although Funmilola was spending loads of time serving to her with the product, Teniola was hesitant to ask her to go away her full-time job at MAX. But she finally did, and her greatest pal mentioned sure to changing into her co-founder. Flashing again to that second, Funmilola mentioned, “It felt natural and almost like a promotion from a consultancy position to a co-founder position. Moreover, I enjoyed working on the product with Teniola, and like her, I was also passionate about the problem.” Teniola, with seven years of expertise as a pharmacist and pharmacy operations supervisor, is the CEO of the startup, whereas Funmilola, as a consequence of her years of expertise in product administration, is the Chief Product Officer.

Going the further mile

Both co-founders consider that Pharmarun must be greater than a drug retailer. “If people know where to find a drug but do not have any money to buy it, they still lack access to medication,” Teniola mused on a name with me. Pharmarun additionally funds treatment for its clients via embedded buy-now-pay-later (BPNL) providers. “Through partnerships with some BNPL companies, customers who are out of cash to pay can still access medication.” Because the BNPL providers are embedded at the checkout, they aren’t run on the steadiness sheet of Pharmarun, so the startup doesn’t must work on recovering the mortgage from clients. 

Pharmarun’s operational mannequin could evoke comparisons to Jumia, as customers can merely place an order and have drugs delivered to their doorsteps. However, not like Jumia’s platform, customers do not need to select from an array of pharmacies like Medplus. When clients seek for a particular drug on the Pharmarun platform, it assists them find the greatest worth from any pharmacy that has the desired amount of treatment. “This is why we are onboarding as many legitimate pharmacies as we can,” Teniola mentioned. Currently, Pharmarun collaborates with over 80 pharmacies throughout the nation, with a big presence in cities comparable to Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ibadan, and Uyo. It is engaged on partnering with extra pharmacies.

Nevertheless, the strategy of onboarding these pharmacies has not been with out challenges. Adedeji highlighted the stringent onboarding course of to make sure compliance with trade requirements, making certain consumer safety. Additionally, many of those pharmacies will not be tech-savvy, necessitating coaching on the net platform used to fulfil orders. Overcoming these obstacles is essential as Pharmarun actively works to develop its community of associate pharmacies. During her pitch, Teniola talked about the want for important funding, estimating as much as $500,000, to facilitate the onboarding of extra pharmacies.

Staffing additionally posed a big hurdle as the buyer base grew. Teniola acknowledged the issue of discovering people with the essential abilities and shared ardour. Despite the challenges, Pharmarun has grown from its humble beginnings with Teniola and her greatest pal and co-founder Funmilola to a crew of 15 devoted employees members.

“We are going beyond medication,” Funmilola mentioned to me. Pharmarun envisions a broader influence, significantly for communities that appear remoted from city communities like Makoko in Lagos. “We are building Pharmarun to be able to deliver all essential medical health products to those in need. Even beyond Nigeria, because what we have is a very replicable solution. In five years we will be working either independently or through collaborations, to address healthcare challenges across African countries,” she concluded.

The different 14 startups that competed alongside Pharmarun at the Pitch2Win 2023 competitors embody blockchain and ed-tech startup Akowe, health-tech startup Primed E-Health, fintech startup Tyms Africa, mobility tech startup Motor Africa, B2B fintech startup Bridger, e-commerce startup Check Retail, blockchain powered fintech startup Crunch Network, fintech startup Oystr Finance, blockchain startup DIAGON STUDIOS LTD, cloud infrastructure startup PipeOps, AI startup ZeroComplex AI, blockchain startup Centiiv, logistics startup Shiip, and well being tech startup Uburu Health.

ZeroComplex AI, an AI startup devoted to streamlining the integration of AI into current purposes was the runner-up in the competitors. Oystr Finance which facilitates easy accessibility to different monetary information, creditworthiness evaluation, and borrower identification verification got here third.