Ghanaian e-health startup Redbird has raised funding from Atlanta-based impact investor Gray Matters Capital to expand its customer base.
Redbird, which was one of three winners at the recent DEMO Africa event in Accra, enables pharmacies and chemists to perform on-site rapid testing for the diagnosis and monitoring of health conditions.
It offers patients a wide range of health monitoring services with the benefits of convenience and affordability as they can get rapid diagnostic tests done via pharmacies.
The startup has now secured funding from Gray Matters Capital through GMC coLABS, an early-stage investment portfolio that invests in innovative enterprises with the potential to dramatically improve the lives of women and girls around the world.
“We are incredibly excited to bring GMC coLABS on as part of the Redbird team,” said Patrick Beattie, Redbird chief executive officer (CEO).
“With the investment from GMC coLABS as well as their expertise in helping organisations like ours to scale up, we’ll be able to expand our customer base in Accra and beyond.”
Redbird, which has currently partnered with two pharmacies in the Accra area, will look to scale to 30 additional community pharmacies over the next three months with the funding.
This investment in Redbird is in line with the GMC coLABS portfolio commitment of investing US$5 million over the next three years in such enterprises. It is the company’s second investment in Africa, following last year’s backing of Rwanda-based African Renewable Energy Distributor (ARED).
“We are committed to investing in companies that are positively impacting the lives of women,” said Jennifer Soltis, portfolio manager for coLABS at Gray Matters Capital.
“We’re encouraged by the talent of the African social entrepreneurs we’re 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 will look to allocate a greater percentage of our committed US$5 million to social enterprises in Africa over the coming three years.”
GMC coLABS will be accepting applications from social enterprises in the continent for the next round of funding until September 15. It will be looking to fund six new enterprises every six months, and investing up to US$250,000 per enterprise.
