Ghana’s Redbird HealthTech Secures Funding From Atlanta-Based Investor
Atlanta-based Gray Matters Capital (GMC) has announced investment into Ghana’s RedBird Health Tech through its GMC coLABS portfolio. The American impact investor with a gender focus whose mission is to provide “an education leading to a more purposeful life for 100 million women globally by 2036” is looking to make more headway and cover new grounds with this latest investment (which will be the company’s second in Africa following an initial investment in Rwanda-based African Renewable Energy Distributor, A.R.E.D, in 2017).
The investment portfolio, GMC coLABS, has set its sights on investing in innovative and scalable for-profit social enterprises that have the potential to bring about improvements in the lives of women and girls around the world. RedBird is set to benefit from this investment on the backs of the coLABS portfolio commitment to injecting as much as USD 5 Mn in social enterprises of that nature over the next three years.
The benefitting enterprise, RedBird Health Tech, is into medical diagnostics distribution. The Ghana-based startup is looking to make health care easily accessible to people living in various parts of the West African nation through community pharmacies. It is also believed to provide some medical monitoring services which involve consultancy, diagnosis, and prognosis; serving up advantages in the way of convenience and affordability.
RedBird also has provisions which allows pharmacies to expand their business and avail patients, especially those who are pregnant and have chronic diseases, of a more effective way of keeping tabs on the status of their health and getting ideal medical solutions to some of their infirmities without having to go through the hassle of losing a full day to travel and waiting at overburdened medical centers.
The latest investment from the American impact investor is expected to further the growth of the Ghanaian startup and buoy its expansion plans which are currently in the pipeline. As pointed out by Patrick Beattie, CEO RedBird Health Tech, “we are incredibly excited to bring GMC coLABS on as part of the RedBird team. With the investment from GMC coLABS, as well as their expertise in helping organizations like ours to scale-up, we will be able to expand our customer base in Accra and beyond.” Having already partnered with two pharmacies in the Accra area prior to the latest investment, RedBird is now looking to scale to 30 additional community pharmacies over the next three months with the new injection of capital.
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“We are committed to investing in companies that are positively impacting the lives of women,” said Jennifer Soltis, Portfolio Manager – coLABS, Gray Matters Capital. When questioned on the company’s increasing interest on the African continent, she further revealed; “we are encouraged by the talent of the current crop of African social entrepreneurs we are meeting, who are working on overcoming critical barriers affecting women with their innovative solutions. We look forward to deepening our portfolio’s presence on the continent, and we are looking to allocate a percentage of our committed USD 5 Mn to social enterprises in Africa over the next three years.”
Social entrepreneurs in Africa are invited to submit applications for GMC coLABS next round of funding, which is targeted at funding six new enterprises every six months and investing up to USD 250 K per enterprise. The deadline for the submission of applications is September 15th, 2018.
