Kenya-based start-up bags US$21m investment to expand health platform across Africa

A Kenya-based women’s health start-up has raised US$21m in funding to expand its health platform across Africa.

An e-commerce platform specialised in women’s healthcare, Kasha provides a broad a range of products that cover different life stages, including newborn health, maternal health, menstrual health, family planning, reproductive health, hypertension, diabetes, as well as HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment.

The company started off by approaching the Rwandan market with a direct-to-consumer approach but, as demand grew, it decided to expand into the wholesale market.

The move allowed Kasha to serve larger healthcare institutions such as pharmacies, hospitals, and clinics, who can use the Kasha website to order a variety of products including period pads, contraceptives, diapers and cleaning supplies.

“We have always understood that women are the most influential customer in the health space, both because they have the most health needs and are decision-makers for health in the household and unlock the rest of the population,” founder and CEO Joanna Bichsel told TechCrunch.

“Since many health products for women are stigmatised, Kasha has purposely offered a wide variety of products, including personal care products like soap, health products like contraceptives, and household staples like rice.

“We have continued to expand our variety of products purely from customer demand and the needs of the different customer segments who purchase from us, including small kiosk shops, pharmacies, hospitals, clinics and consumers.”

The founder said optimising around health products is what differentiates Kasha from other East African–founded B2B e-commerce platforms.

“Our core strategic focus is in the area of health and that’s where we aim to win,” she explained, noting the platform has capabilities around telehealth and credit, an important feature of B2B e-commerce up-starts.

“If a consumer orders from us and they don’t have a prescription, we connect them to a doctor. There are other health tech capabilities; we offer inventory credit to pharmacies, clinics and hospitals,” she continued.

“So, we overlap in that general FMCG space, but our expertise is more in health. We also build a broader distribution network, reaching the mass market customer around the country and going to the last mile.”

According to TechCruch, Kasha raised US$1.5m in its early stages in Rwanda. The company went on to secure a US$3.6m investment in 2020 following its expansion in Kenya.