Basel, Switzerland / Nairobi, Kenya – 17 February
Axmed, a health technology company headquartered in Switzerland with regional headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya, today announced it has been awarded $6 million in non-dilutive grant funding from the Gates Foundation to expand access to high-quality, affordable medicines across low- and middle-income countries through its B2B procurement and integrated logistics platform.
The grant builds on the Foundation’s prior $5 million support and reflects continued conviction in Axmed’s execution and operating model. With additional backing from Founderful Ventures, the company has now raised a total of $13 million in capital to date.
The new funding will accelerate Axmed’s expansion across Africa and support procurement programs spanning multiple therapeutic areas, including family planning and malaria products serving mothers, children, and underserved patient populations across LMICs over the next 12 to 18 months.
Since launch, Axmed has developed a geo-agnostic pooled procurement and logistics platform purpose-built for fragmented and supply-constrained healthcare markets. In 2025 alone, the platform delivered more than 1,800 metric tonnes of healthcare products and reached over 4.2 million patients, up from approximately 750,000 in 2024. Over the same period, Axmed recorded 12x year-on-year revenue growth and maintained an average 70 percent repeat purchase rate, demonstrating strong adoption and sustained buyer trust.
Through demand aggregation, price transparency, and coordinated international logistics, the platform consistently generates 30 to 35 percent cost savings for customers. These efficiencies directly expand patient reach, improve medicine availability, and shorten delivery timelines across complex operating environments.
“Although Axmed is a young organization, their model of leveraging a technology-enabled marketplace to improve access to essential medicines in emerging markets is both innovative and essential,” said Denise Tuiime Mutambi, Director of Planning and Procurement at Joint Medical Stores. “They have demonstrated an exceptional ability to navigate global healthcare supply chain complexity and translate strategy into measurable and sustainable impact.
Axmed plans to operate in more than 20 countries by the end of 2026, with a target of reaching 50 million patients within three years and over 100 million within five years, positioning the platform as a core infrastructure layer for medicines procurement in underserved markets.
“This funding allows us to scale what already works while we bring in aligned long-term capital,” said Emmanuel Akpakwu, Founder and CEO of Axmed. “With the continued support of the Gates Foundation, our focus is disciplined execution at scale: strengthening procurement systems, improving affordability, and ensuring high-quality medicines reliably reach the people who depend on them.”
About Axmed
Axmed is a technology-enabled B2B marketplace and logistics platform that connects buyers, manufacturers, and distributors to streamline procurement and delivery of essential medicines across low- and middle-income countries. By combining pooled demand, data-driven sourcing, and integrated international logistics, Axmed reduces costs, increases supply reliability, and expands patient access to quality-assured healthcare products.
