Lagos based last mile medical supply startup LifeBank has closed $200 000 seed round, led by EchoVC Pan-Africa fund. Also participating in the round was CcHub Growth Capital and an undisclosed healthcare angel investor.
The startup, which leverages technology to discover, organize and deliver essential medical products to hospitals and in the process, acquires actionable data says it will use the funding to extend its supply chain and expand its coverage across Nigeria.
Launched in 2016, LifeBank currently has over 41 authenticated blood banks on its online platform and has delivered to 167 hospitals. The company says its optimized supply chain has helped save over 1,000 lives so far.
The company is initially focused on optimizing blood supplies given the size, fragmentation, and severity of the need.
Its goal according to a statement sent out to the media is to continue to break down the challenges of medical supply logistics with technology-driven approaches.
LifeBank is working on a host of supply chain-focused solutions such as employing AI techniques to predict blood needs at the hospital level and utilizing blockchain technology to store authenticated non-alterable product information. The company also plans to use drones to serve hard-to-reach rural clinics.
“LifeBank is on a mission to build a big business that saves lives. Busy hospitals across the developing world often struggle to access essential medical products that they need to deliver great world-class care. When this happens, people die, especially vulnerable people”, said Temie Giwa-Tubosun, CEO and founder.
“LifeBank™ collates real-time inventory information, deploys the information to hospital clients using both high and low tech, and moves products in the right condition and on time. Our big audacious goal is to build the best healthcare supply chain that can promptly deliver essential medical products to every last mile point in the developing world.”
“Solving local healthcare problems at scale is a very important focus for our firm and we are very excited to invest in a company that is providing innovative healthcare-related solutions to life-threatening problems not just in Nigeria but across Africa,” said Uche
