Switzerland-based health technology company Axmed has secured $6 million in non-dilutive grant funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The new funding strengthens the company’s efforts to expand access to affordable, quality-assured medicines in low- and middle-income countries, particularly across Africa.
The latest grant builds on a previous $5 million award from the foundation and brings Axmed’s total funding to $13 million to date. This includes prior equity backing from Founderful Ventures. The capital will support the scale-up of Axmed’s business-to-business procurement and integrated logistics platform, with a clear focus on essential medicines such as family planning products and malaria treatments that support maternal and child health programmes.
Axmed operates a geo-agnostic procurement platform that aggregates demand from healthcare providers and connects them directly with global manufacturers. The system manages the full transaction lifecycle, including supplier matching, regulatory compliance, quality assurance and international logistics. By centralising these processes, the platform addresses common supply chain challenges in fragmented healthcare markets.
Building Efficient Procurement Systems at Scale
Healthcare systems in many African countries face supply shortages, high prices and long delivery timelines. Axmed’s model seeks to address these gaps by pooling demand and increasing price transparency. Through coordinated international logistics and direct manufacturer engagement, the platform generates cost savings of approximately 30 to 35 percent for institutional buyers.
These savings are not only financial. They are designed to increase patient reach, improve medicine availability and reduce delays in getting critical treatments to communities that need them most.
Operational data from 2025 shows strong growth. The company delivered more than 1,800 metric tonnes of healthcare products and reached over 4.2 million patients. This represents a significant increase from approximately 750,000 patients in 2024. During the same period, Axmed recorded twelvefold year-on-year revenue growth and maintained an average repeat purchase rate of about 70 percent, indicating sustained trust from healthcare providers.
Digital procurement systems and integrated logistics platforms are increasingly seen as essential infrastructure for improving access to medicines in underserved regions. By combining technology with supply chain expertise, Axmed is positioning itself as a long-term procurement partner rather than a short-term supplier.
Expansion Plans and Long-Term Patient Reach
Over the next 12 to 18 months, Axmed plans to deepen its presence in existing markets while entering new countries across Africa. The company aims to operate in more than 20 countries by the end of 2026. Its longer-term targets are ambitious but clear: reaching 50 million patients within three years and more than 100 million patients within five years.
Founder and Chief Executive Officer Emmanuel Akpakwu said the funding will allow the company to scale proven systems while maintaining operational discipline. He explained that the support enables Axmed to scale what already works while bringing in aligned long-term capital.
Akpakwu emphasised that the focus is not rapid expansion at the expense of quality. Instead, the company intends to strengthen procurement systems, improve affordability and ensure that high-quality medicines reliably reach the people who depend on them. With the continued support of the Gates Foundation, he noted that the priority is disciplined execution at scale.
Axmed is headquartered in Switzerland and maintains regional headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya. From this base, it coordinates procurement programmes that serve hospitals, clinics and other healthcare institutions operating in complex and supply-constrained environments.
The latest grant signals confidence in a model that treats procurement as core healthcare infrastructure. By connecting fragmented demand with verified global supply and by managing regulatory and logistics processes in a single system, Axmed aims to reduce inefficiencies that have long limited medicine access in emerging markets.
As healthcare systems across Africa continue to modernise, platforms that combine digital procurement with logistics integration are expected to play a larger role. With fresh capital and clear growth targets, Axmed is positioning itself to contribute meaningfully to that shift, expanding access to essential medicines while strengthening the systems that deliver them.
