Nigerian e-health startup Field Intelligence has closed a Series A funding round worth US$3.6 million to fund the scale up of Shelf Life, the technology-enabled supply chain finance platform for pharmacies in Africa.
Field Intelligence is building a new generation of healthcare supply chains in Africa, developing enterprise platforms and managing logistics information for large-scale public health and community pharmacies.
The startup uses technology to amplify human resources and drive innovation, and has built a multinational team working out of its offices in Abuja, Lagos, Berlin, London and Nairobi. Field is managing commodities with a value of over US$1 billion dollars across both the public and private sector.
It has now raised a US$3.6 million Series A round led by Blue Haven Initiative, with investors including Newtown Partners via the Imperial Venture Fund and Accion Venture Lab. The investment will be used to scale Shelf Life, its “pay-as-you-sell” subscription service for pharmaceutical products that has grown rapidly since first debuting in Nigeria in mid-2017. The new investment will fund Shelf Life’s expansion throughout Nigeria and Kenya, as well as the development of additional services for Shelf Life clients and their patients.
Shelf Life’s pharmacy clients can subscribe to over a thousand quality-assured and price-stabilised drugs from 50 medical, health and wellness categories. Using Field Intelligence’s technology platform, Shelf Life forecasts, procures, delivers, manages, and finances each product the pharmacy has subscribed to.
“We’re delighted to welcome new investors into the business. They share our vision for catalysing change in a huge and vitally-important sector. They bring deep fintech and logistics experience, which will be vital in helping us build a new generation of healthcare supply chains in Africa and beyond,” said Michael Moreland, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Field Intelligence.
Lauren Cochran, managing director of Blue Haven Initiative, said Shelf Life was a proven platform to transform access to medicines through Africa’s private community pharmacy market.
“The design and development have been done on the ground in Nigeria and Kenya and there’s real experience in the team of what it takes to deliver at scale in African health systems,” she said.