Health

Lapaire Glasses is a Kenyan eye care company and eyewear retail chain founded in 2018. It addresses a population until then excluded from the quality eye care market by offering free vision tests and prescription glasses starting at $30 (each pair of glasses costs between $30 and $100, with an average at $50), as well as premium customer service.

Today, Lapaire Glasses operates 20 optical stores across Africa and has over 150 employees. With the aim of becoming the most popular eyewear brand in Africa, Lapaire plans to open more clinics in major cities, as well as in rural areas.

Entrepreneurs

Graduated from the University of Geneva Law School, Jérôme Lapaire, a Swiss national and lawyer by profession, founded Lapaire Glasses in 2018 with his personal savings and money from friends, after realizing that access to quality eye care was a particularly burdensome problem in Kenya. The cost of an ophthalmological consultation, the time it takes and the price of prescription glasses are often too great a burden for a large proportion of the population. Gérôme Lapaire's portrait on LeTemps.ch

He is joined in this entrepreneurial adventure by Louis Gascoin, who holds an MBA from EDHEC Business School, specializes in operational excellence and distribution development, and has been based in Côte d'Ivoire since 2012, where he has built up solid professional experience in project development with multinationals such as Burger King, where he was General Manager from 2017 to 2020, and Servair as Head of Development and then Project Manager.

Partnership with I&P

Lapaire Glasses is supported by I&P through the I&P Afrique Entrepreneurs 2 (IPAE 2) fund, which is joined by AfricInvest in this round of financing. This partnership will help the company :

• Open 250 additional stores in 3 years, including expansion into 5 new African countries;
• Strengthen and structure management, operational teams and working capital for this new period of growth;
• Strengthen the company's IT infrastructure.

Expected impact

• Extend access to quality corrective eyewear and ophthalmic care to populations excluded from the conventional healthcare system ;
• Job creation.

The Espace Véritable Santé (EVS) medical center is a private health facility offering day care such as generalist consultations but also specialized consultations (ultrasound, radiology, maternity excluding caesarean sections and medical analyses).

EVS is located in San-Pédro, in the Bas-Sassandra district of Côte d'Ivoire.

The entrepreneur

EVS was founded in 2017 by Dr ALLA Konan Barthelémy.

Partnership with Comoé Capital and I&P

EVS is supported by Comoé Capital, a partner of I&P, through private equity.

Expected impacts

• Increasing reception capacity and diversifying care offerings
• Improvement in the quality of care, particularly in medical imaging and maternity care, given the alarming infant mortality figures in Côte d'Ivoire.
• Staff training and capacity building

Pharm’Xpert is a company based in Burkina Faso specialized in the assistance and management of pharmacies: the company provides services such as feasibility studies for the opening of health structures, assistance in the management and recovery of pharmacies, training of pharmacy assistants and pharmacists, etc.

The entrepreneur

Pharm’Xpert was founded by Dr. Malick Ba in 2014, who started in 2002 in the Burkinabe civil service, looking for solutions to facilitate the accessibility of health products and care to the population. Convinced that a healthy population is an important lever of development for any nation, he created his own company in order to overcome the mismanagement and poor coordination of the activities of pharmaceutical structures with a view to providing quality health services to populations.

Partnership with I&P and Sinergi Burkina

Pharm’Xpert is supported by Sinergi Burkina through capital-investment. The main objective of this partnership is to :

• Finance the working capital and optimize inventory management 
• Support the company in its internationalization process
• To increase the capacity's intervention 
• Structure and improve the company's governance

Incas is a medical diagnostics social enterprise based in Ghana, which seeks to save lives through the design and production of low-cost, easy-to-use, point-of-care diagnostic test kits designed specifically for Africa. Since its inception, Incas Diagnostics has been committed to ensuring that all persons enjoy good health and wellbeing, by making available effective, efficient, and easily accessible test kits at affordable prices for various purposes.

The entrepreneur

Incas was founded by Laud Anthony Basing, who has 10 years of experience as a microbiologist and over a decade of experience in molecular-based research. Laud was previously a Laboratory Auditor for the African Society for Laboratory Medicine (ASLM) in Ethiopia where he audited African laboratories enrolled in the SLIPTA Programme, a framework for improving the quality of public health laboratories in developing countries to achieve the requirements of the ISO 15189 standard. Laud worked as a Lecturer at Kumasi University of Science and Technology (KNUST) where he taught Medical Diagnostics and Microbiology before founding Incas.

Partnership with I&P

Incas is supported by I&P through I&P Acceleration in Sahel. In Ghana, the monitoring and the implementation of the program is lead by Wangara Green Ventures. 

This partnership aims at :

• Complete formalization of business (accounting and financial support, implementation of administrative, accounting and HR procedures)
• Review and implement waste treatment procedure
• Support Business development and capital raise

Expected impacts

• Increase in innovation in the Ghanaian and African biotech space
• Directly contributing to the increase in good health and well-being of individuals
• Contribute to decent work and economic growth

Medivas is a company specialized in medical evacuations (air and road), on-site medical assistance, emergency medical coverage during events and medical training in Côte d'Ivoire. It is the first company in this sector that is managed by Ivorians.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Medivas (Medical Vehicle Aircraft Assistance Services) was created in 2014 by Mr. Herbert Kouamé Bi, a dynamic promoter, who has more than 20 years of experience in emergency medical assistance.Holder of an MBA in Management and Marketing and a National First Aid Certificate - National First Aid Training from the Red Cross Ivory Coast, Mr. Herbert Kouamé Bi has accumulated his professional experiences mainly as Manager and Coordinator of operations of international and local companies in the same sector, before creating the company.

PURPOSE OF THE FUNDING

Medivas benefits from I&P Acceleration in Sahel program, which is implemented in Côte d'Ivoire by Comoé Capital sponsored by I&P. The support will allow the company to acquire a new ambulance for medical evacuations by land. Medivas will also benefit from the support of several consultants who will improve the governance of the company, revitalize the accounting and finance function and put in place a complete procedure manual for the management of operational risks including the aspects of patient safety, ambulance drivers and risk prevention.

About Comoé Capital

Comoé Capital is the first impact investment fund dedicated to the financing and support of Ivorian SMEs and start-ups. Headed by Issa Sidibé, Comoé Capital is the fifth African fund sponsored by Investisseurs & Partenaires as part of the I&P Développement 2 fund. The fund network currently includes a fund in Niger (Sinergi Niger), Burkina Faso (Sinergi Burkina), Senegal (Teranga Capital) and Madagascar (Miarakap). Site of Comoé Capital →

PALOBDE is a company specializing since 2018 in the production and marketing of washable sanitary towels. In addition to meeting a hygienic need where Burkinabé teenage girls cannot afford disposable pads, PALOBDE promotes a local raw material (cotton) while respecting ecological standards.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

The initiative was led by Emilie Palobde KYENDREBEOGO, also involved with the NGO Helen Keller International in Burkina Faso. Previously, she held the positions of accountant and finance administrator at IFDC Burkina Faso.

CONTRIBUTIONS OF SINERGI BURKINA

The company has been supported by Sinergi Burkina through private equity.

The objectives are to :

- Increase of the production capacity by the construction of a larger and more adapted production site on the one hand, and on the other hand through the acquisition of new machines and the control of the supply chain
- Implementation of an effective commercial strategy to develop the B2C positioning and strengthen the B2B

ABOUT SINERGI BURKINA

Created in 2014, Sinergi Burkina is the first impact investment fund dedicated to financing and supporting SMEs and start-ups in Burkina Faso. Headed by Job Zongo, Sinergi Burkina is the second investment fund sponsored by Investisseurs & Partenaires as part of the I&P Développement 2 fund. The fund network currently includes a fund in Niger (Sinergi Niger), Côte d'Ivoire (Comoé Capital), Senegal (Teranga Capital) and Madagascar (Miarakap). → To learn more about Sinergi Burkina 

Established in 2002, Home Medical Service (HMS) is a private medical centre offering day care such as consultations, medical analysis and observation.

The HMS Medical Center is owned by a medical couple: Dr. Arame D'ALMEIDA and her husband Dr. Jean-Charles Patrick D'ALMEIDA founded this medical center after their medical studies in Senegal and several years of experience.

THE ENTREPRENEURS

Dr. Arame DIAGNE D'ALMEIDA holds a doctorate in medicine. She obtained at the Cheick Anta Diop University of Dakar in 1992. She has nearly 24 years of professional experience.

Her husband, Dr. Jean-Charles Patrick D'ALMEIDA, holds a graduate degree in Gynecology and Obstetrics from Cheick Anta Diop University in Dakar, which he obtained in 1990. He has 29 years of experience and has worked in several clinics in Côte d'Ivoire as a temporary gynaecologist-obstetrician.

EXPECTED IMPACT

• Increase in reception capacity and diversification of care offers
• Improving the quality of care, particularly in neonatology and maternity care
• Staff training and capacity building

ABOUT COMOE CAPITAL

Comoé Capital is the first impact investment fund dedicated to the financing and support of Ivorian SMEs and start-ups. Headed by Issa Sidibé, Comoé Capital is the fifth African fund sponsored by Investisseurs & Partenaires as part of the I&P Développement 2 fund. The fund network currently includes a fund in Niger (Sinergi Niger), Burkina Faso (Sinergi Burkina), Senegal (Teranga Capital) and Madagascar (Miarakap). →Site of Comoé Capital

New Crystal Health Services (NCHS) is Ghana’s leading private health care group dedicated to the urban poor. From its modest beginnings in a four-bedroom facility in 2003, New Crystal now serves an average of 300,000 customers per year through a chain of six networked clinics, a diagnostic services company and a pharmaceutical wholesale and retail company. NCHS provides general consulting services in health care, surgery, optics, dental care and other diversified health services.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor is a medical doctor and an entrepreneur. After completing University of Ghana Medical School in 1999, he completed his mandatory housemanship and then decided to work at Greenshield Clinic in Sefwi-Wiawso, a rural town in the Western region of Ghana. During his Greenshield experience, the founder of the clinic entrusted Dr. Wisdom with overall management responsibility, which helped him to later birth the idea of New Crystal in 2003. He holds an MBA from the University of Ghana Business School in Entrepreneurial Management. Dr. Wisdom has been the primary driver of New Crystal’s growth to date.

Watch an interview with the promoter, Dr. Wisdom Amegbletor

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P

I&P’s investment in New Crystal aims to:

• Upgrade the infrastructure of the New Crystal network of clinics to enable the continued provision of affordable, more quality health care to underserved communities

• Strenghten governance practices and organizational structure to support the sustainability of the business

EXPECTED IMPACT

• Access to affordable and quality health care

• Provision of free health care to all the staff of the clinics

• Financing of certifications and regular training of the staff

• Improved waste management methods

• Possibility of supplying solar energy to clinics

The Dental Clinic Le Cap Vert is a Senegalese health structure created in 2006 and specialized in oral care.

With proven expertise, the clinic offers its patients high quality oral care services, performed using processes and equipment that meet the highest standards in the dental field. It includes several specialty areas: basic dental care, orthodontics, prostheses and dental imaging.

After twelve years of activity, the Dental Clinic Le Cap Vert has several thousand patients treated, enjoys a very good reputation for the quality of its services, and has made significant progress in its operational and financial performance.

The Entrepreneur

Dr Issakha Mbaye is a dentist. He graduated in 2003 in dentistry from Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, and also holds a diploma in public health.

Partnership with Teranga Capital

Teranga committed alongside with the company to:

• Support the company in its growth phase by providing it with financial, technical and human resources to strengthen its base, expand its offers and seize development opportunities.

• Provide local support ranging from strategy to improving the effectiveness of the management of the organization.

Expected Impacts

• Provide quality care to a greater number of patients.

The medical-surgical clinic PROCREA, based in Abidjan, began operating in 2008. It specializes in the field of reproductive health and is the leader in Côte d’Ivoire in Assisted Reproductive Health Care (AMP), a technique that treats people with infertility issues and helps them to achieve parenthood.

PROCRÉA also provides mother-child care, including obstetrical gynecology, neonatology (newborn care), and pediatrics.

The vision of PROCREA's promoters is to popularize the practice of MAP in order to make it accessible to a greater number of people. The clinic aims to become one of the leaders in the sector in Côte d'Ivoire and West Africa, complying with the requirements and standards of the international medical sector. In ten years of activity, the clinic has already accompanied more than 500 couples.

THE ENTREPRENEUR

PROCRÉA was created in 2006 under the initiative of Dr. Myriam Kadio-Morokro Brou, principal promoter, and Professor Marie-Laure Hauhouot Attoumgbré, co-promoter, both of whom are recognized experts in Côte d'Ivoire in the fields of biology and reproductive sciences. Later they were joined by 3 other renowned health professionals in Côte d'Ivoire.

After obtaining her bachelor's degree in France, Dr. Kadio-Morokro Brou joined the Faculty of Medicine in Abidjan where she graduated in 2001 and did a thesis on reproductive biology. Passionate about the subject, she then returned to France to complete her studies in reproductive biology, sterility therapy, molecular cytogenetics and male sterility. During her stay in France she worked in several hospitals, hospitals and laboratories.

Back in Côte d'Ivoire in 2005, she suggested to her friend Prof Attoumgbré to join her in the PROCREA clinic project, which they founded in 2006. PROCREA’s activities officially started in 2008.

► To know more, discover the interview of Dr. Kadio-Morokro Brou

PARTNERSHIP WITH I&P 

I&P committed alongside with PROCRÉA to:

• Restructure the project to focus on the medical offer dedicated to reproduction

• Financing and supporting the construction of a new, larger clinic, better adapted to PROCRÉA's needs and designed in an environmentally friendly way (treatment of medical waste, rainwater recovery, reduction in energy consumption, etc.)

• Support the management team in the running of the clinic

EXPECTED IMPACTS

• Make reproductive health care available to the greatest number of people

• Improve the quality of care

• Increase the clinic's capacity