• Friday, March 29, 2024
businessday logo

BusinessDay

myMedicines makes list of 26 Nigerian startups to win Google’s $3m Black Founders Fund

myMedicines makes list of 26 Nigerian startups to win Google’s $3m Black Founders Fund

myMedicines, Nigeria’s innovative online medicines platform, is a recipient of the Google Black Founders Fund, a non-dilutive $3 million fund allocated across a pipeline of 50 early-stage Black-founded startups in Africa.

Launched in 2020, the Google Black Founders Fund selected twenty-six Nigerian tech Startups as beneficiaries of this year’s funding, more than half of the total participants.

The global tech giant believes that funding Black founders fuels generational change and it is uniquely positioned to provide capital and support to help founders grow their businesses, and in turn, create space for founders to succeed and create greater impact for their community.

Thanks to the fund, myMedicines will receive non-dilutive funding, Google Ad and Cloud credits, as well as mentorship, technical and scaling support from Google.

Founder of myMedicines, Abimbola Adebakin, represents one of the women who lead 40 percent of the selected startups, representing 9 countries and 12 sectors.

Thrilled to be a recipient, Abimbola said, “This is surreal. And we are so honoured. We set out to create access to genuine medications and we have delivered to over 25 states across the country. It has been four years of consistently meeting this gap in our last mile healthcare, fulfilling orders from Yenagoa to Sokoto, Ikeja to Ilorin, Ibadan to Uyo. We keep getting stronger as a team and as a business.”

Read also: Union Systems Achieves ISO 9001 And ISO 27001 Certifications

According to Adebakin, high profile recognitions serve as a tonic to founders like her, who choose to create tech-enabled ventures in tough times.

“Thank you, Google. Thank you to our clients and prescribers, who keep referring myMedicines. Thank you to our backers and to our network of fulfilment pharmacies across the country. Thank you to our partners who believe in us. Thank you, to my incredibly resilient team,” she said.

myMedicines is a medicine ordering platform for Nigerians, which creates peace of mind for individuals regarding access to affordable and genuine medication; it sources for and delivers authentic and affordable medicines to the doorstep of Nigerians in urban and rural areas.

Medicines are crowdsourced nationwide, with fulfilment from licensed pharmacies in almost all states in the country. Not only does myMedicines help solve access and ease of purchase for users, but it is also ensuring the safety of drugs purchased.

Through this award, Google for Startups Black Founders Fund presents a future of immense possibilities for myMedicines. Now, more clients can be reached, more lives can be saved and Africa can be a step closer to achieving universal health coverage, the tech company said.

A satisfied client, Awuneba Ajumogobia, remarked “myMedicines is a lifesaver” while Pharmacist Oraibi Jamabo, the Managing Director of one of the fulfilment pharmacies of myMedicines remarked “Congratulations! The kind of value you have brought to the pharmacy space is second to none and I feel quite honoured to have my business benefit from your business model.”

Abimbola confirmed that myMedicines is poised to scale its transformative work in the African healthcare sector, “which is why we are launching the myMedicines mobile app before the end of 2021. We desire to have the myMedicines app downloaded on every phone in every household” African healthcare needs value-driven African solutions, and myMedicines is glad to rise to the occasion.