Health tech startup, Medsaf emerged the winner of Seedstars World local pitching contest in Lagos during the weekend thereby qualifying for the regional and global Seedstars Summits in April 2018. The global winner will secure a $500,000 funding from Seedstars.
The Seedstars World Lagos 2017 had ten start-ups competing for an opportunity to represent the country at the summits. The start-ups included DropQue, an artificial intelligence based recruitment platform; education technology startup Edves; developer-finding platform eWorker; data collection GetJama; e-delivery firm Parcel-it; recycling-focused social marketplace iRecycle; e-health startup Medsaf; Safi, an on-demand dry cleaning service; fintech startup Wallet.ng; and professional services network Wesabi.
The event which lasted for two days at SeedSpace also owned by Seedstars, saw the ten start-ups undergo different exercises beginning with a boot camp. There were also opportunities to listen to founders of already established tech firms and mentors during a workshop session. After the session, the group of ten start-ups went into a think-thank session where they shared ideas on the solutions they are providing to their communities.
The second day the start-ups came out to make the pitch that could possibly take their businesses to the next level.
At the end of the pitches, DropQue emerged the audience favourite winning the most public votes offered by SeedSpace.
However, it was Medsaf that carried the day with a compelling pitch of how the startup was transforming people’s lives by helping them take the right drug prescription. The startup gets medications directly from leading local and foreign manufacturers, eliminating issues relating to quality control and ensuring fair pricing, and delivers the medications to hospitals, pharmacies, and clinics all over the country.
Speaking on her motivation for Medsaf, Vivian Nwakah told the investors, “A friend of mine died from taking a fake malaria pill. So I went on a two years journey to figure out what the problem was.”
She described Medsaf as the trusted medication platform for Africa that connects pharmacies and hospitals with safe and cost effective medications.
eWorker won the first runner-up for the competition while Edves picked the third position.
