US based Alchemist Accelerator helped us get investors says Redbird Health Tech co-founder

Redbird Health Tech co-founder and CEO Patrick Beattie says joining San Francisco-based Alchemist Accelerator — which announced recently that applications for its latest cohort will close later this month — helped his startup access investors without, which the healthtech wouldn’t be where it is today.

The startup graduated from the accelerator in September last year. Shortly before this, in July last year US impact investor Gray Matters Capital announced it had invested in the startup, through its GMC coLABS portfolio.

While the startup did not disclose how much it netted in investment, business intelligence platform Crunchbase estimates that GMC coLabs invested $500 000 in the pre-seed round.

“Many of the angel investors from our pre-seed round are from the US and Alchemist helped us to establish our US presence,” said Beattie (pictured above).

He was commenting in an email to Ventureburn, ahead of the accelerator’s next application deadline, which closes on 28 September with spots for 25 teams. The accelerator exclusively works with startups whose revenue comes from enterprises.

Redbird was part of Alchemist Alchemist Accelerator’s Class 19

The Accra-based startup — which was founded in 2017 by Beattie, another American Edward Grandstaff and Ghanaian Andrew Quao — provides pharmacies and chemists with on-site rapid test technology used in diagnosing chronic and acute conditions.

The startup also enables pharmacists to track the results of their customers over time, by doing so it allows them to create unique patient profile where data is stored and easily referenced and shared with physicians when needed.

This, the startup says, enables it to help pharmacies manage their stock to ensure patients never face stock-outs and identify real-time population-level prevalence of disease.

Redbird was part of Alchemist Accelerator’s Class 19. The six-month programme held its demo day in September last year. The startup signed up its 100th pharmacy on 28 August, up from two pharmacies last year.

The startup also claims its in-pharmacy testing service has had 45% monthly growth since it was launched last year, with more than 12 000 users having logged over 70 000 results.

In addition, last month Redbird launched a consumer app for their health monitoring platform. This it says complements its in-pharmacy testing service and enables patients to view their records wherever they are and to more easily share results with family and friends.

‘We wouldn’t be where we are today’

Beattie says Alchemist has been “great” for the startup. “I can safely say we wouldn’t be where we are today without having been in the programme,” he added.

He said the accelerator’s B2B focus meant the startup could access feedback from international corporate partners to start thinking of the broader potential of what its was creating.

Beattie pointed out that the programme was also a “great opportunity” for the startup to learn what the best practices for startups are.

He explained that working with mentors around structuring operations to plan for growth and ensuring Redbird could measure key metrics from the start was “immensely helpful”.

“This early work with mentors is a big part of why we’ve been able to keep up with the demand we’ve seen,” said Beattie.

For Beattie, the best part of the enterprise accelerator has been the access to continuous support following the conclusion of the programme.

“We remain connected to the alumni network, which keeps growing, so as new gold standards come up, we’re engaged and hearing about them,” he said.

Next application deadline 28 September

The Alchemist Accelerator’s six-month programme focuses on enterprise customer development, sales (direct and online), market validation and a structured path to fundraising.

The accelerator said there is an ask of single-digit common equity of about five percent equity that will vary depending on the business.

In addition, the accelerator may also ask for the right to invest a minority or non-threatening co-investment in a startup’s Series-A round.

Startups selected for the accelerator also stand to benefit from $36 000 in funding.

Redbird, Beatie said, was the second African company to be accepted into the Alchemist Accelerator. The first was another Ghanaian healthtech startup mPharma.

Read more: US impact investor invests $250k in Ghanaian startup Redbird Health Tech
Read more: Ghanaian healthtech company mPharma secures over $9m in Series-B funding
Read more: Ghanaian healthtech startup mPharma wins $1.5m at 2019 Skoll Awards

Featured image: Redbird Health Tech co-founder and CEO Patrick Beattie (Redbird)