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Pre-seed round funding is under scrutiny: Is VC pandemic posturing here to stay?

Published March 23, 2021
Russ Heddleston
Contributor

Russ is the co-founder and CEO of DocSend. He was previously a product manager at Facebook, where he arrived via the acquisition of his startup Pursuit.com, and has held roles at Dropbox, Greystripe and Trulia. Follow him here: @rheddleston and @docsend
More posts by this contributor

All successful companies start off as a great idea, scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin during a late-night meeting of the minds or gleaned from a fleeting inspiration that leaves you with a feeling of “I could do that better.”

For most, that’s as far as entrepreneurship ever goes, because, unfortunately, a great idea can’t raise money, develop a product or disrupt an industry.

It’s only an idea.

Investors’ heightened expectations for monetization potential and a company’s positioning within its competitive landscape are unlikely to lessen in the years to come, even in a post-COVID economy.

New data from the DocSend Startup Index show that for early-stage fundraising, particularly in the pre-seed round, founders need to approach VCs with much more than a great idea to secure funding. Our newest report on the state of pre-seed fundraising shows that investors became laser-focused on sections of the pitch deck that address monetization and business viability — signs that founders need to come to the table with better-defined businesses in order to succeed.

Do not pass go — VCs insist pitch decks meet 3 key criteria

According to the data, overall founder and VC activity took a nosedive in early 2020 once the serious nature of the pandemic became apparent. But as the year progressed and investors adjusted to the new market conditions and remote dealmaking, overall activity quickly surpassed pre-pandemic levels.

Despite this flurry of activity and an unprecedented appetite for new startup pitches, investors made it very clear that strong positioning in three sections of the pitch deck was nonnegotiable.

Image Credits: DocSend(opens in a new window)

  1. Competitive landscape — When we published our 2019 pre-seed report, the competitive landscape section of pitch decks was firmly in the middle of the pack in terms of time spent reviewing by investors: They averaged around 35 seconds to clearly articulate their own uniqueness and product-market fit. In 2020, the VC time spent on the same section increased by 51% to an average of 53 seconds across both successful and unsuccessful decks (those that did or did not lead to a funding offer).

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Superhuman CEO Rahul Vohra is coming to TechCrunch Early Stage in July

Published March 23, 2021

The frequent difficulty of founders finding product-market fit has been a topic of constant (and ever-evolving) discussion at TechCrunch conferences over the years.

Superhuman founder and CEO Rahul Vohra will be joining us at TechCrunch Early Stage: Marketing & Fundraising in July to dive into the much-obsessed topic of product-market fit. We’re looking to dig into what exactly finding product-market fits means to the startup ecosystem of 2021.

The repeat founder’s email service platform has raised more than $33 million in funding from firms like Andreessen Horowitz and First Round Capital, providing users with an algorithmically-sorted email app that has set a lot of trends in emerging enterprise software on both the design and go-to-market strategy front.

The startup is oft-referenced as a prime example of the “consumerization” of enterprise software trend which has seen more and more workplace SaaS apps level-up their focus on user-centric design. We’ll ask him how he feels about the fact that “Superhuman for X” has grown to be a fairly common formula for workplace elevator pitches.

Superhuman’s Rahul Vohra says recession is the ‘perfect time’ to be aggressive for well-capitalized startups

We’ll also talk with him about how he found an audience for a $30 per month subscription app and how the company has scaled its product to meet their customers’ other needs. In addition to the hat he wears as the founder of Superhuman, we’ll ask him about how he views the challenge from the other side of the table as a prolific angel investor. The fund that he manages with Eventjoy founder Todd Goldberg announced a $7 million fund last year and the duo has backed several startups, including Clubhouse, Mercury and Coda.

We think it’s going to be a conversation you can’t miss and it’s just one part of a two-day event exploring the many aspects of early-stage startups this July. And if you move fast, you can check out Rahul’s session in July as well as all of the great content happening at TC Early Stage: Operations & Fundraising in April with a dual event ticket — check out the entire April event agenda lineup here.

Our first TC Early Stage event is coming up fast, so be sure to grab your dual event ticket to TC Early Stage on April 1-2 and July 8-9 to save $100 or more before prices increase this Friday.

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Stock trading app Freetrade raises $69 million

Published March 23, 2021

U.K. challenger stockbroker Freetrade has raised a $69 million Series B round led by Left Lane Capital. The growth fund of L Catterton and existing investor Draper Esprit also participated. Freetrade operates a stock trading app and has managed to attract 600,000 users in the U.K. — they generated £1 billion in quarterly trade volume.

Freetrade has reached a post-money valuation of $366 million following today’s funding round. In December 2020, the company generated $1.4 million in revenue.

After signing up, Freetrade lets you buy and sell shares from the company’s mobile app. If you want to invest in companies with expensive shares, such as Alphabet (Google’s parent company), you can buy fractional shares. Instead of spending over $2,000 for a single share, you can buy one-tenth of a share for one-tenth of the price.

Freetrade lets you access U.S. and U.K. stocks as well as ETFs. Like Robinhood in the U.S., the company doesn’t charge any trading commission for basic orders — there’s a 0.45% foreign exchange fee on transactions in foreign currencies. Unlike Robinhood, the company doesn’t want to push you toward day trading.

In addition to free general investment accounts, Freetrade offers individual savings accounts (ISA). It’s a type of account specific to the U.K. that encourages long-term investments as tax on capital gains goes down over time. Freetrade charges £3 per month to open an ISA.

The company also offers pension savings accounts (SIPP). You get tax relief on contributions. If you live in the U.K., you’re probably familiar with SIPP. Those accounts cost £9.99 per month.

Finally, Freetrade has a premium plan for its most engaged users. You can pay £9.99 for Freetrade Plus. After that, you get 3% interest on cash up to £4,000, more stocks and more order types (limit and stop loss orders). You also get a free ISA and a discount on your SIPP.

As you can see, Freetrade is betting heavily on subscription revenue combined with a freemium approach. People who just want to buy a few shares probably stick with free accounts. But people who want to convert part of their savings into stocks and ETFs will likely end up subscribing to a tax-efficient account or a Freetrade Plus subscription.

With today’s funding round, the company plans to expand its product beyond its home country. You can expect some European expansion moves in the future.

For instance, Freetrade plans to launch in France with 5,000 stocks and ETFs from major European, U.K. and U.S. exchanges. Freetrade will support PEA, France’s equivalent of ISA, for €3 per month. And users will be able to subscribe to Freetrade Plus for €9.99 per month.

In other words, it’s going to be a very similar product in France and in the U.K. While there’s no dominant stock trading app in France, German startup Trade Republic recently launched its app on the French market. It’s going to be interesting to see how these two startups grow outside of their home countries.

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OnePlus 9 arrives, sporting a Hasselblad-branded camera system

Published March 23, 2021

Cameras have long been the battleground on which the smartphone wars have been fought. Short of any left-field innovation like folding screens or strange form factors, that looks likely to continue to be the case for the foreseeable future. Year after year and generation after generation, companies tout imaging breakthroughs to set themselves apart.

It makes sense. Smartphones have improved to a point where flagship devices are, as a rule, pretty good. And while cameras have been a part of those improvements, there’s still a lot of room for improvement, both in terms of hardware and the software/AI that augments it. Recently, OnePlus announced that it would be recruiting a big name to help it in that fight.

OnePlus recruits Hasselblad for 3-year smartphone imaging deal

Earlier this month, the Chinese smartphone maker unveiled a three-year deal with Hasselblad, one of the most iconic names in the photography space. Announced at an event today, the company’s new OnePlus 9 series will be the first handset to sport the early fruits of the $150 million deal.

The deal makes sense from a strategic standpoint. After all, OnePlus’s transformation from a high-end budget device to flagship competitor has put companies like Apple and Samsung in its sights. Both of those companies have established and long-standing imaging departments for their hardware, so in addition to a clear branding partnership, this does seem to be an earnest attempt to level the playing field.

Image Credits: Brian Heater

It’s worth noting, up top, that the days of being the budget alternative are, to a degree, gone. The OnePlus 9 starts at $729 and the Pro starts at $969. As smartphone pricing goes, that’s toward the lower-end of premium devices, but after the introduction of the Nord, it seems safe to say that budget will no longer be a primary differentiator for OnePlus’s primary line.

Naturally, the OnePlus 9 Pro gets the most benefit from these early stages of the Hasselblad deal. The primary camera sports a 48-megapixel Sony sensor, coupled with improved focus speeds and increased color accuracy. The ultrawide camera has a 50-megapixel sensor (also Sony), with a lens designed to reduce distortion. Interestingly, the company says it’s also effective for shooting close macro shots with distances as close as 4cm.

Will Apple’s spectacular iPhone 12 sales figures boost the smartphone industry in 2021?

The third primary camera is an eight-megapixel telephoto capable of up to 30x digital zoom (though you’re going to lose a fair bit of information). There’s a fourth monochrome camera, as well, which primarily serves to help improve black and white shots. The standard OnePlus 9 has a similar setup, though you’ll drop that telephoto lens.

Here’s OnePlus on what Hasselblad is bringing to the table this time out:

The new Hasselblad Pro Mode offers incredibly accurate and natural color for a solid foundation for post-editing. It has been revamped with a new user interface based on Hasselblad’s image processing software to give professional-level users a unique Hasselblad look and feel. It also allows for an unprecedented amount of control for expert photographers to fine-tune their photos, with the ability to adjust ISO, focus, exposure time, white balance and more. Users can also shoot in 12- bit RAW format for 64-times the color compared with 10-bit RAW traditionally found in other smartphones.

Image Credits: Brian Heater

Keep in mind, the partnership is still in its early stages, and much of the money is going toward R&D, so we’ll probably be seeing more integration down the road.

The display is the same as the one found in the OnePlus 8T. That’s a 6.55-inch AMOLED with a 120Hz refresh rate. Brightness maxes out at 1,100 nits, and the screen sports HDR10+ certification. There’s a Snapdragon 888 inside, coupled with 8 or 12GB of RAM and 128 or 256GB of storage. Both models feature a solid 4,500 mAh battery that goes from empty to 100% charge in 29 minutes.

Pre-orders start March 26. The handsets will ship April 2.

OnePlus’s 8T handset brings faster charging and a 120Hz display for $749 

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Startups book an expo booth at TC Sessions: Mobility 2021 to double down on connection and exposure

Published March 23, 2021

When it comes to fast-moving technology, mobility zooms ahead of the pack — both literally and figuratively. Early-stage startup founders and investors need to keep their fingers on the sector’s very rapid pulse and the best place to do that is, you guessed it, TC Sessions: Mobility 2021 on June 9.

If you’re eager to introduce your early-stage startup to the top leaders, investors, experts and policy makers across the mobility tech community, don’t just attend TC Sessions: Mobility — exhibit there. Double down on essential exposure and increase your opportunities.

Budget-friendly tip: The early-bird price remains active until May 5 at 11:59 pm (PST). Buy your Startup Exhibitor Package before the deadline hits and save 35 percent.

Talk about a rapt audience. One big reason people attend the show is to see and meet exciting, innovative new startups. A Startup Exhibitor Package lets you showcase your tech, build your network and expand your opportunities for growth and success. Here’s what your package includes (Note: They’re available only to pre-Series A, early-stage startups).

  • Virtual booth space: Display your pitch deck, host a video display and demo your products.
  • Lead generation: Track booth visitors for easy post-show follow-up.
  • Event passes: The package price includes four passes to TC Sessions: Mobility. Bring your team and increase your networking opportunities.
  • Full event access: You can tune in to all presentations on every stage.
  • Video on-demand: No FOMO for you. You’ll have VOD access to all presentations after the show ends.
  • Breakout sessions: Don’t miss these presentations, each with a special focus.
  • Networking: Whether you connect on the fly using the virtual platform’s chat feature or find specific people and schedule meetings using CrunchMatch, our AI-powered networking platform, you’ll make connections to drive your mobile business forward.

Keeping with the networking theme, this is how Karin Maake, senior director of communications at FlashParking, described her experience.

“TC Sessions: Mobility isn’t just an educational opportunity, it’s a real networking opportunity. Everyone was passionate and open to creating pilot programs or other partnerships. That was the most exciting part. And now — thanks to a conference connection — we’re talking with Goodyear’s Innovation Lab.”

Don’t miss your chance to sashay your superior stuff in front of the mobility industry’s leading mover, shakers and makers. Buy a Startup Exhibitor Package now, save 35 percent and get ready for TC Sessions Mobility 2021.

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Mobility 2021? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

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OneTrust adds ethics to its privacy platform with Convercent acquisition

Published March 23, 2021

OneTrust, a late stage privacy platform startup, announced it was adding ethics and compliance to the mix this morning by acquiring Convercent, a company that was built to help build more ethical organizations. The companies did not share the purchase price.

OneTrust just raised $300 million on a fat $5.1 billion valuation at the end of last year, and it’s putting that money to work with this acquisition. Alan Dabbiere, co-chairman at OneTrust sees this acquisition as a way to add a missing component to his company’s growing platform of services.

“Integrating Convercent instantly brings a proven ethics and compliance technology, team, and customer base into the OneTrust, further aligning the Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer strategy alongside privacy, data governance, third-party risk, GRC (governance, risk and compliance), and ESG (environmental, social and governance) to build trust as a competitive advantage,” he said.

Convercent brings 750 customers and 150 employees to the OneTrust team along with its ethics system, which includes a way for employees to report ethical violations to the company and a tool for managing disclosures.

Convercent wants to make it easier for companies to measure ethical behavior

Convercent can also use data to help surface bad behavior before it’s been reported. As CEO Patrick Quinlan explained in a 2018 TechCrunch article:

“Sometimes you have this interactive code of conduct, where there’s a new vice president in a region and suddenly page views on the sexual harassment section of the Code of Conduct have increased 200% in the 90 days after he started. That’s easy, right? There’s a reason that’s happening, and our system will actually tell you what’s happening.”

Quinlan wrote in a company blog post announcing the deal that joining forces with OneTrust will give it the resources to expand its vision.

“As a part of OneTrust, we’ll be combining forces with the leader across privacy, security, data governance, third-party risk, GRC, ESG—and now—ethics and compliance. Our customers will now be able to build centralized programs across these workstreams to make trust a competitive differentiator,” Quinlan wrote.

Convercent was founded in 2012 and has raised over $100 million, according to Pitchbook data. OneTrust was founded in 2016. It has over 8000 customers and 150 employees and has raised $710 million, according to the company.

OneTrust nabs $300M Series C on $5.1B valuation to expand privacy platform

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Customer data platform ActionIQ extends its latest funding round to $100M

Published March 23, 2021

ActionIQ, which helps companies use their customer data to deliver personalized experiences, is announcing that it has extended its Series C funding, bringing the round to a total size of $100 million.

That number includes the $32 million that ActionIQ announced in January of last year. Founder and CEO Tasso Argyros said the company is framing this as an extension rather than a separate round because it comes from existing investors — including March Capital — and because ActionIQ still has most of that $32 million in the bank.

Argyros told me that there were two connected reasons to raise additional money now. For one thing, ActionIQ has seen 100% year-over-year revenue growth, allowing it to increase its valuation by more than 250%. (The company isn’t disclosing the actual valuation.) That growth has also meant that ActionIQ is getting “a lot more ambitious” in its plans for product development and customer growth.

“We raised more money because we can, and because we need to,” Argyros said.

The company continues to develop the core platform, for example by introducing more support for real-time data and analysis. But Argyros suggested that the biggest change has been in the broader market for customer data platforms, with companies like Morgan Stanley, The Hartford, Albertsons, JCPenney and GoPro signing on with ActionIQ in the past year.

Customer data platform ActionIQ raises $32M

Some of these enterprises, he said, “normally would not work with a cutting-edge technology company like us, but because of the pandemic, they’re willing to take some risk and really invest in their customer base and their customer experience.”

Argyros also argued that as regulators and large platforms restrict the ways that businesses can buy and sell third-party data, products like ActionIQ, focusing on the first-party data that companies collect for their own use, will become increasingly important. And he said that ActionIQ’s growth comes as the big marketing clouds have “failed” — either announcing products that have yet to launch or launching products that don’t match ActionIQ’s capabilities.

Companies that were already using ActionIQ include The New York Times. In fact, the funding announcement includes a statement from The Times’ senior vices president of data and insights Shane Murray declaring that the newspaper is using ActionIQ to deliver “hundreds of billions of personalized customer experiences” across “mail, in-app, site, and paid media.”

ActionIQ has now raised around $145 million total, according to Crunchbase.

Microsoft enhances customer data platform as pandemic drives need for personalization

Early Stage is the premier ‘how-to’ event for startup entrepreneurs and investors. You’ll hear first-hand how some of the most successful founders and VCs build their businesses, raise money and manage their portfolios. We’ll cover every aspect of company-building: Fundraising, recruiting, sales, product market fit, PR, marketing and brand building. Each session also has audience participation built-in – there’s ample time included for audience questions and discussion. Use code “TCARTICLE” at checkout to get 20 percent off tickets right here.

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Dataminr raises $475M on a $4.1B valuation for real-time insights based on 100k sources of public data

Published March 23, 2021

Significant funding news today for one of the startups making a business out of tapping huge, noisy troves of publicly available data across social media, news sites, undisclosed filings and more. Dataminr, which ingests information from a mix of 100,000 public data sources, and then based on that provides customers real-time insights into ongoing events and new developments, has closed on $475 million in new funding. Dataminr has confirmed that this Series F values the company at $4.1 billion as it gears up for an IPO in 2023.

This Series F is coming from a mix of investors including Eldridge (a firm that owns the LA Dodgers but also makes a bunch of other sports, media, tech and other investments), Valor Equity Partners (the firm behind Tesla and many tech startups), MSD Capital (Michael Dell’s fund), Reinvent Capital (Mark Pincus and Reid Hoffman’s firm), ArrowMark Partners, IVP, Eden Global and investment funds managed by Morgan Stanley Tactical Value, among others.

To put its valuation into some context, the New York-based company last raised money in 2018 at a $1.6 billion valuation. And with this latest round, it has now raised over $1 billion in outside funding, based on PitchBook data. This latest round has been in the works for a while and was rumored last week at a lower valuation than what Dataminr ultimately got.

The funding is coming at a critical moment, both for the company and for the world at large.

In terms of the company, Dataminr has been seeing a huge surge of business.

Ted Bailey, the founder and CEO, said in an interview that it will be using the money to continue growing its business in existing areas: adding more corporate customers, expanding in international sales and expanding its AI platform as it gears up for an IPO, most likely in 2023. In addition to being used journalists and newsrooms, NGOs and other public organizations, its corporate business today, Bailey said, includes half of the Fortune 50 and a number of large public sector organizations. Over the last year that large enterprise segment of its customers doubled in revenue growth.

“Whether it’s for physical safety, reputation risk or crisis management, or business intelligence or cybersecurity, we’re providing critical insights on a daily basis,” he said. “All of the events of the recent year have created a sense of urgency, and demand has really surged.”

Activity on the many platforms that Dataminr taps to ingest information has been on the rise for years, but it has grown exponentially in the last year especially as more people spend more time at home and online and away from physically interacting with each other: that means more data for Dataminr to crawl, but also, quite possibly, more at stake for all of us as a result: there is so much more out there than before, and as a result so much more to be gleaned out of that information.

That also means that the wider context of Dataminr’s growth is not quite so clear cut.

The company’s data tools have indeed usefully helped first responders react in crisis situations, feeding them data faster than even their own channels might do; and it provides a number of useful, market-impacting insights to businesses.

But Dataminr’s role in helping its customers — which include policing forces — connect the dots on certain issues has not always been seen as a positive. One controversial accusation made last year was that Dataminr data was being used by police for racial profiling. In years past, it has been barred by specific partners like Twitter from sharing data with intelligence agencies. Twitter used to be a 5% shareholder in the company. Bailey confirmed to me that it no longer is but remains a key partner for data. I’ve contacted Twitter to see if I can get more detail on this and will update the story if and when I learn more. Twitter made $509 million in revenues from services like data licensing in 2020, up by about $45 million on the year before.

In defense of Dataminr, Bailey that the negative spins on what it does result from “misperceptions,” since it can’t track people or do anything proactive. “We deliver alerts on events and it’s [about] a time advantage,” he said, likening it to the Associated Press, but “just earlier.”

“The product can’t be used for surveillance,” Bailey added. “It is prohibited.”

Of course, in the ongoing debate about surveillance, it’s more about how Dataminr’s customers might ultimately use the data that they get through Dataminr’s tools, so the criticism is more about what it might enable rather than what it does directly.

Despite some of those persistent questions about the ethics of AI and other tools and how they are implemented by end users, backers are bullish on the opportunities for Dataminr to continue growing.

Eden Global Partners served as strategic partner for the Series F capital round.

Early Stage is the premier ‘how-to’ event for startup entrepreneurs and investors. You’ll hear first-hand how some of the most successful founders and VCs build their businesses, raise money and manage their portfolios. We’ll cover every aspect of company-building: Fundraising, recruiting, sales, product market fit, PR, marketing and brand building. Each session also has audience participation built-in – there’s ample time included for audience questions and discussion. Use code “TCARTICLE” at checkout to get 20 percent off tickets right here.

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Ghana’s Redbird raises $1.5M seed to expand access to rapid medical testing in sub-Saharan Africa

Published March 23, 2021

For patients and healthcare professionals to properly track and manage illnesses, especially chronic ones, healthcare needs to be decentralized. It also needs to be more convenient, with a patient’s health information able to follow them wherever they go.

Redbird, a Ghanaian health tech startup that allows easy access to convenient testing and ensures that doctors and patients can view the details of those test results at any time, announced today that it has raised a $1.5 million seed investment.  

Investors who participated in the round include Johnson & Johnson Foundation, Newton Partners (via the Imperial Venture Fund) and Founders Factory Africa. This brings the company’s total amount raised to date to $2.5 million.

The health tech company was launched in 2018 by Patrick Beattie, Andrew Quao and Edward Grandstaff. As a founding scientist at a medical diagnostics startup in Boston, Beattie’s job was to develop new rapid diagnostic tests. During his time in Accra in 2016, he met Quao, a trained pharmacist in Ghana at a hackathon whereupon talking found out that their interests in medical testing overlapped.

Beattie told TechCrunch that while he saw many exciting new tests in development in the U.S., he didn’t see the same in Ghana. Quao, who is familiar with how Ghanaians use pharmacies as their primary healthcare point, felt perturbed that these pharmacies weren’t doing more than transactional purchases.

Rising African venture investment powers fintech, clean tech bets in 2020

They both settled that pharmacies in Ghana needed to imbibe the world of medical testing. Although both didn’t have a tech background, they realized technology was necessary to execute this. So, they enlisted the help of Grandstaff to be CTO of Redbird while Beattie and Quao became CEO and COO, respectively.

L-R: Patrick Beattie (CEO), Andrew Quao (COO) and Edward Grandstaff (CTO). Imge Credits: Redbird

Redbird enables pharmacies in Ghana to add to their pharmacy services rapid diagnostic testing for 10 different health conditions. These tests include anaemia, blood sugar, blood pressure, BMI, cholesterol, Hepatitis B, malaria, typhoid, prostate cancer screening and pregnancy.  

Also, Redbird provides pharmacies with the necessary equipment, supplies and software to make this possible. The software —  Redbird Health Monitoring — is networked across all partner pharmacies and enables patients to build medical testing records after going through five-minute medical tests offered through these pharmacies.

Rather than employing a SaaS model that Beattie says is not well appreciated by its customers, Redbird’s revenue model is based on the supply of disposable test strips.

“Pharmacies who partner with Redbird gain access to the software and all the ways Redbird supports our partners for free as long as they purchase the consumables through us. This aligns our revenue with their success, which is aligned with patient usage,” said the CEO.

This model is being used with more than 360 pharmacies in Ghana, mainly in Accra and Kumasi. It was half this number in 2019, which Redbird has since doubled despite the pandemic. These pharmacies have recorded over 125,000 tests in the past three years from more than 35,000 patients registered on the platform.

Redbird will use the seed investment to grow its operations within Ghana and expand to new markets that remain undisclosed.

In 2018, Redbird participated in the Alchemist Accelerator just a few months before launch. It was the second African startup after fellow Ghanaian health tech startup mPharma to take part in the six-month program. The company also got into Founders Factory Africa last April.

Ghana’s mPharma partners with Ethiopian conglomerate to enter its eighth market

According to Beattie, most of the disease burden Africans might experience in the future will be chronic diseases. For instance, diabetes is projected to grow by 156% over the next 25 years. This is why he sees decentralized, digitized healthcare as the next leapfrog opportunity for sub-Saharan Africa.

“Chronic disease is exploding and with it, patients require much more frequent interaction with the healthcare system. The burden of chronic disease will make a health system that is highly centralized impossible,” he said. “Like previous leapfrog events, this momentum is happening all over the world, not just in Africa. Still, the state of the current infrastructure means that healthcare systems here will be forced to innovate and adapt before health systems elsewhere are forced to, and therein lies the opportunity,” he said.

But while the promise of technology and data is exciting, it’s important to realize that health tech only provides value if it matches patient behaviors and preferences. It doesn’t really matter what amazing improvements you can realize with data if you can’t build the data asset and offer a service that patients actually value.

Beattie knows this all too well and says Redbird respects these preferences. For him, the next course of action will be to play a larger role in the world’s developing ecosystem where healthcare systems build decentralised networks and move closer to the average patient.

Healthcare by 2028 will be doctor-directed, patient-owned and powered by visual technologies

This decentralised approach is what attracted U.S. and South African early-stage VC firm Newtown Partners to cut a check. Speaking on behalf of the firm, Llew Claasen, the managing partner, had this to say.

“We’re excited about Redbird’s decentralised business model that enables rapid diagnostic testing at the point of primary care in local community pharmacies. Redbird’s digital health record platform has the potential to drive significant value to the broader healthcare value chain and is a vital step toward improving healthcare outcomes in Africa. We look forward to supporting the team as they prove out their  business model and scale across the African continent.”

Early Stage is the premier “how-to” event for startup entrepreneurs and investors. You’ll hear firsthand how some of the most successful founders and VCs build their businesses, raise money and manage their portfolios. We’ll cover every aspect of company building: Fundraising, recruiting, sales, product-market fit, PR, marketing and brand building. Each session also has audience participation built-in — there’s ample time included for audience questions and discussion. Use code “TCARTICLE” at checkout to get 20% off tickets right here.

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