Salient Advisory has released its latest market intelligence report, focusing on 24 leading Africa-focused supply chain innovators. Funded by the Gates Foundation, the report titled ‘Leading Innovations Enabling Health Product Access in Africa’, finds that a select number of African health innovators are emerging as leaders amid difficult macro-economic realities in African technology ecosystems.
The report further revealed that about 24 leading innovators collectively now partner with more than 100 manufacturers and more than 75 public health institutions. Thanks to this partnership, these innovators have reached about 50,000 providers who serve hundreds of thousands of patients per day, and delivering health products to millions of consumers directly.
One of the innovators, Kasha, made news capturing Series B investment last year, and has since gone on to build its health technology access platform. The company also generated revenues of more than Ksh. 6.45 billion (USD 50 million) in 2023, the highest ever recorded by Salient’s research to date.
Like Kasha, innovators that offer digitally-enabled Order and Inventory Management services to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and drug shops appear dominant amongst the leading companies, making up 13 of the 24 featured innovations, with operations in 30 countries. Four leading Online Pharmacies are reaching nearly 10 million customers and generating median annual revenues of nearly Ksh. 1.16 billion (USD 9 million). The other categories featured are innovations in Product Protection and Visibility, Medical Drone Delivery and Data Analytics.
The 24 leading innovators featured in the report are: Chefaa, DrugStoc, Field Inc, Figorr, Grinta, HealthPlus, Kasha, LifeBank, Maisha Meds, Meditect, mPedigree, MYDAWA, Pendulum, PharmaSecure, Remedial Health, RxAll, Sobrus, Sproxil, Talamus Health, VIA Global Health, Viebeg, Wingcopter, Yodawy and Zipline.
Speaking on the launch of the report, Yomi Kazeem, Engagement Manager at Salient Advisory, commented, “The findings underscore the remarkable resilience and growing impact of African supply chain innovators. Having tracked healthtech startups for many years, the emergence of a group of leading innovators is exciting to report. Local and global public health communities must increasingly recognize and leverage the innovators in developing reliable and resilient health supply chains.”