"Believers Are Crucial Rather Than Resumes": Pharmarun's Initial to Thousand Days
Pharmarun, a groundbreaking Nigerian healthcare platform, has grown from a simple WhatsApp community during the COVID-19 pandemic to a major player in the healthcare sector, serving over 115,000 users through a network of more than 1,000 pharmacies across all 36 states of Nigeria.
The journey began in 2020 when Teniola Adedeji, a pharmacy professional, registered the name Pharmarun with a vision to reimagine how people in Nigeria access medicine. Initially, she used her pharmacy network to help customers find elusive items through WhatsApp, proving that the problem was worth solving.
By late 2021, Teniola began to think seriously about scale and enlisted the help of her best friend, Lola, who became Pharmarun's co-founder in 2022. The duo launched a Wix website and opened social media pages, receiving immediate responses from strangers asking them to source their medications.
Pharmarun's network grew from a handful of pharmacies in Lagos to dozens across the state, and eventually to hundreds across Nigeria by the end of 2023. The platform won the Pitch2Win competition, providing validation and leading to more traction, publicity, and eventual funding.
The platform’s growth journey was not without challenges. Building trust with pharmacies and consolidating a fragmented sector proved to be the hardest challenge. However, Pharmarun's current strategy centers on consolidating pharmacies under its platform, intensive onboarding and training to digitize operations, and expanding marketing efforts for scale.
Pharmarun now operates with dedicated roles such as Pharmacy Fulfillment Associates, who manage partner pharmacy relationships, ensure smooth order fulfillment, and maintain compliance—signifying its move towards professionalized and scalable operations.
The platform partners with 20 of Nigeria’s largest insurers to facilitate fast, easy, and reliable access to medications. Going forward, Pharmarun aims to become a foundational infrastructure in African healthcare by continuing to scale user growth, deepen partnerships, and improve medicine access across Nigeria.
On October 15-16, Pharmarun's Moonshot will be back in Lagos. The event promises to be an exciting opportunity for the healthcare sector, with Pharmarun at the forefront of the revolution in Nigeria's healthcare industry.
[1] Techpoint Africa. (2023, February 10). Pharmarun raises $3.5 million to expand healthcare access in Nigeria. Retrieved from https://techpoint.africa/2023/02/10/pharmarun-raises-3-5-million-to-expand-healthcare-access-in-nigeria/
[2] Ventures Africa. (2023, April 15). Pharmarun: The Nigerian Healthcare Platform Transforming Access to Medicine. Retrieved from https://venturesafrica.com/pharmarun-the-nigerian-healthcare-platform-transforming-access-to-medicine/
[3] Techcabal. (2023, May 20). Pharmarun raises $3.5 million to expand healthcare access in Nigeria. Retrieved from https://techcabal.com/2023/05/20/pharmarun-raises-3-5-million-to-expand-healthcare-access-in-nigeria/
- Teniola Adedeji, the pharmacy professional who founded Pharmarun, initially envisioned financing a solution to address the difficulty people in Nigeria faced in accessing medicine.
- As Pharmarun expanded, the duo partnered with technology and fintech companies for seamless digital transactions, demonstrating their commitment to entrepreneurship in the healthcare industry.
- The science of logistics played a crucial role in Pharmarun's success, as the platform's strategy revolved around consolidating a fragmented pharmacy sector for efficient order fulfillment and compliance.
- Looking beyond Nigeria, Pharmarun aspires to create a lasting impact on the health-and-wellness sector across Africa, leveraging business and technology to improve medicine access in the continent.
