Field Intelligence To Fuel Nigerian/Kenyan Expansion Of Its Pharmtech Platform, Shelf Life, With USD 3.6 Mn Series A

The social enterprise, Field Intelligence, which is building a new generation of healthcare supply chains in Africa, has today announced the successful closing of its USD 3.6 Mn Series A round.

The funding round was led by Blue Haven Initiative, with investors including Newtown Partners via the recently announced Imperial Venture Fund and Accion Venture Lab.

Through Shelf Life, its supply service, Field Intelligence is ensuring availability, reducing costs, and empowering pharmacies to grow by improving access.

The company claims to be focused on making the pharmaceutical supply chain radically simple, affordable, and effective, by helping providers — from the largest health systems to the smallest drug shops — to ensure a new generation can access the care it needs to flourish.

The USD 3.6 Mn equity raise will fund the scale-up of Shelf Life, the technology-enabled supply chain finance platform for pharmacies in Africa.

As stated by Michael Moreland, Co-Founder and CEO, Field Intelligence, says, the firm is pleased to welcome its new investors and is more committed than to boosting healthcare supply chains across Africa.

“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 Moreland.

According to a press release announcing the development, the pharmaceuticals market in Africa is valued at over USD 60 Bn. And for 80 percent of people in Africa, their community pharmacies are the frontline of the health system and yet they routinely out-of-stock of essential medicines.

These medicare outlets also incur significant losses due to expiry and they struggle with substandard and falsified drugs. These inefficiencies cost the health system millions of dollars each year and limit access to quality care.

Field Intelligence calls itself a pioneer in pharmaceutical supply chain solutions in Africa. Its Shelf Life “Pay-As-You-Sell” subscription service for pharmaceutical products has grown rapidly since first debuting in Nigeria in mid-2017.

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

Field Intelligence says over 280 community pharmacies in Nigeria and Kenya have now subscribed to Shelf Life to-date, making it one of the largest networks of pharmacies on the continent.

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. 

Speaking on the investment, Lauren Cochran, Managing Director, Blue Haven Initiative, said, “Shelf Life is 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.”

On this funding transaction, advisory support was provided by CrossBoundary through USAID’s INVEST program funded by the USAID Southern and East Africa Regional Missions in support of the US Government’s Prosper Africa initiative.