When my Grandma came to stay with us for some time last year, she fell ill. We took her to a nearby pharmacy, and right there, she was consulted, had blood samples taken to a lab in the same complex, and within 30 minutes, her results came out.
She was given some medications, had the first dose of injections there, and that was it.
We didn’t have to take her to a hospital or see a GP.
What she needed was not GP care or something that needed a hospital visit.
Most pharmacies can safely handle certain minor to basic medical issues, and if referrals are needed, they can easily refer to a GP or hospital for further care.
Community Pharmacies Have Become An Important Aspect Of Community Health
Studies show up to 70% of initial medical consultations occur at pharmacies.
Pharmacies are quickly becoming trusted sources of initial medical points of contact, not just in rural or developing places in Africa, but also in developed countries, where people can get quick support, especially for common symptoms that may not necessarily need a visit to the GP or a hospital.
In many African communities, primary and community care is provided mainly through pharmacies or chemists manned by pharmacists or technicians.
Some of these pharmacies or chemists have affiliated labs close by that offer basic laboratory services, such as testing for malaria parasites and other basic laboratory investigations.
Most of the time, people in these communities do not need to visit hospitals because these pharmacies can safely and efficiently handle whatever basic medical care they need.
Investors Have Also Discovered This Development
Investors have discovered this important development and have started to take strategic steps to invest in community pharmacies, boosting their reach and equipping them with what they need to provide more people with safe medical care in the communities.
Recently, i3 (Investing In Innovation Africa), an accelerator backed largely by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, invested about $225,000 exclusively in pharmacy-focused health tech startups for its 2025 cohort.
This move is very strategic and also an eye-opener to the future of healthtech funding in Africa.
Gone are the days of free-flowing funds. We’re entering the phase where investors are only looking for ventures and opportunities that are working and have potential for real growth, coupled with immediate impact.
The seven selected startups include Chefaa (Egypt), Dawa Mkononi (Tanzania), Meditect (Cote d’ivoire), Pharma (Ghana), MYDAWA (Kenya), RxALL (Nigeria), and Sproxil (Nigeria/USA).
These startups operate across 19 African countries, and the services and solutions they offer range from solutions to improve medicine affordability, GPS-enabled delivery for chronic disease patients, embedded financing, cloud-based pharmacy systems, AI-powered spectrometers to detect fake drugs and medicine verifications.
Each startup is receiving up to $225,000 in non-dilutive funding, along with commercial support and market access opportunities.
Financial Sustainability And True Impact
The era of early-stage experiments in the startup ecosystem in Africa has officially ended. Investors no longer have time or money to spend on startups built on fancy pitch decks.
They want more than decks, figures and flashy founders.
They are in desperate need of scale, revenue and impact.
Initially, the initiative supported 60 startups across its first two cohorts, but global funding shifts and the US foreign aid cuts have seriously stifled funding flow, making the accelerator place more focus on startups that have the potential for quick scale and real impact!
With geopolitical instability affecting health funding, initiatives like i3 must be both strategic and sustainable
Mara Hansen Staples
Pharmacy Startups Are Quickly Evolving
Pharmacies are no longer places we go to fill out prescriptions or buy meds for common cold or contraceptives.
There are becoming strong vital links, especially in Africa’s fragmented healthcare systems, where rural and underserved regions are not connected to general hospitals that provide the most basic healthcare needs.
These startups solve very important challenges and are positioned to tackle inefficiencies that plague these pharmacies, such as stockouts, counterfeit drugs, and poor inventory management.
What Might The Future Look Like?
We may begin to see more integrated community health initiatives where pharmacies may now start to incorporate more medical services alongside traditional pharmacy solutions.
This approach can significantly reduce unwanted hospital visits, and the inclusion of digital health services, like making it easier to get prescriptions for common medications through digital platforms, will all contribute to the evolution and maturing of the pharmacy community services.
Join the discussion on Substack.
i3 is coordinated by Salient Advisory and Solina Center for International Development and Research (SCIDaR). It is sponsored by the Gates Foundation, MSD, Cencora (formerly AmerisourceBergen), Endless Foundation, HELP Logistics (a subsidiary of the Kühne Foundation), Sanofi’s Global Health Unit and Chemonics.
