Nigeria’s e-health startup, DrugStoc, closes $4.4 million fundraising. 2 other things and a trivia

This lineup of stories will help you discover the latest happenings around the tech world, today.

1. Nigeria’s e-health startup, DrugStoc, closes $4.4 million fundraising

Nigeria’s e-health pharmaceutical delivery startup, DrugStoc, is close to the completion of a $4.4 million fundraising.

DrugStoc is an e-health drug procurement platform eliminating challenges faced by Nigerians by linking drug companies with hospitals and pharmacies in Nigeria.

The startup was founded by Chibuzo Opara and Adham Yehia after experiencing first-hand problems of poor pharmaceutical supply chains.

In a statement sent to journalists, DrugStoc said the fundraising would help fund the startup’s expansion plan as it looks to deliver quality pharmaceutical products to 100 million people in Nigeria.

The startup said it planned to expand its footprint to 16 states in Nigeria as it moves to grow beyond Lagos.

The statement read: “In Nigeria, we intend to expand beyond 14 million we currently serve to cover just around 100 million people. And this would be achieved by expanding to about 16 states. Once we are done with the heavy lifting from that expansion, we will be training our sights on other countries.”

Several investors including Chicago-based venture firm, Vested World, the German Development Bank (DEG), and high-networth individuals with a keen interest in tech-health participated in the funding round led by Africa HealthCare Master Fund (AAIC).

Tech Trivia: Which of the following is a plain-text file format?

A ZIP

B JSON

C TIFF

D MPG

Answer: See end of post

2. Healthcare startup, Africa Health Holdings, raises $18 million series A funding

As it looks to roll out tech-enabled services, Africa Health Holdings, a healthcare startup running several hospitals, has raised $18 million in a Series A round.

READ ALSO: Nigerian agri-tech startup Zowasel secures $100k. 2 other things and a trivia

Africa Health noted that the bulk of the funds will go towards building its “tech-forward healthcare system” across Ghana, Kenya, and Nigeria.

Led by Asia Pacific Land/Natural World Limited, the funding round saw the participation of a number of investors including TRB Advisors, Breyer Capital, M3, Inc., Valiant Capital, Kepple Ventures, and SUNU Capital.

Speaking on the development, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Africa Health Holdings, Sangu Delle, said the telemedicine service is only available in Ghana but would soon be launched in Nigeria and Kenya.

He said: “Africa Health Holdings will expand by bringing its telemedicine technology to multiple countries. Currently, the telemedicine service is only in Ghana, but soon, it will be expanding to Kenya and Nigeria.”

3. Korean proptech startup, Rsquare, closes $72m Series C

Korean proptech startup, Rsquare, has closed a $72 million Series C round.

The fund was raised from a single backer, STIC Investments, and is expected to see the startup fuel its expansion plan.

Seoul-based Rsquare is a data-driven platform, digitizing the process as it enables tenants to compare multiple properties and find an office.

The CEO of Rsquare, JohnWoo Lee, told journalists in an interview that the latest funding brings its total capital to $95 million.

In addition, the startup looks to spend the proceeds on advancing its AI-based proptech platform, accelerating its commercial building transaction and fulfilment centers brokerage service and increasing headcount to 400 employees by next year.

With a staff strength of 354 employees as of October, the company planned to make further investments in the proptech sector in South Korea and South-East Asia, including Singapore, Vietnam, and Indonesia.

Trivia Answer: JSON

Stands for “JavaScript Object Notation” and is pronounced like the name “Jason.”

JSON is a text-based data interchange format designed for transmitting structured data. It is most commonly used for transferring data between web applications and web servers.

JSON is often viewed as an alternative to XML, another plain text data interchange format. In most cases, the JSON representation of an object is more compact than the XML representation because it does not require tags for each element. Below is an example of an object named “Gaming PC” defined in both JSON and XML.

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