Case: Kasha improves women’s life quality and health in Africa

“Many a death could be avoided if people were more aware of health issues,” says Joanna Bichsel, founder and CEO of Kasha. Finnfund has contributed to Kasha’s growth and expansion in Africa since 2020.

When Finnfund invested in Kasha in 2020, the company’s revenue was approximately $1 million. By 2023, the revenue had risen to $50 million.  Four years ago, Kasha operated in Rwanda and Kenya. After that, the company has expanded to South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, Tanzania, and Uganda. By the end of 2024, the company will also have operations in West Africa.

The company employs approximately 200 people, of whom a half are women.

Bichsel founded Kasha in Rwanda in 2016. The company’s aim was to allow women, especially low-income women living in rural communities, to buy health and sanitary products easily and discreetly at a reasonable price.

It very soon became clear that the problem was not only the fact that women were ashamed to buy sanitary products, contraceptives, HIV tests and AIDS medicine, but also that women were highly ignorant of the existing options.

“Rwandan women did not know about tampons, for example. Many women had never heard of post-coital contraception or even at-home pregnancy tests,” Bichsel says.

Born in Poland and grown up in Canada, Bichsel’s background is in data processing and technology. Bichsel travelled to East Africa and Asia for her job as an engineer at Microsoft. At first, Bichsel volunteered at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and was later employed by the organisation. Bichsel was responsible for the transport and supply chains of vaccines and contraceptives, among other products, in East Africa.

“I saw that technology was not utilised efficiently in business, but I knew that it would work in East Africa. When I was on maternity leave and expecting my second child, I developed the business idea and named the company after my daughter Kasha,” Bichsel says.

Understanding consumer needs is crucial

Approximately 40% of Kasha’s customers are consumers but they only generate around 1% of the company’s revenue. The majority of Kasha’s customers are stores, stands, pharmacies and pharmaceutical companies as well as companies manufacturing sanitary products and articles.

Nevertheless, individual customers in rural regions are important to the company.

“Understanding the needs of consumers is key to our business. Our large corporate customers need information on the market needs, the types of products consumers are willing to buy and the desired price level. We help companies reach new markets.”

Kasha also gains information on the consumer market through its nurse chat service. The service is free of charge. The nurse’s salary is covered by companies or organisations that also fund Kasha’s mobile clinics, carrying out tests free of charge.

“We want to improve things, especially the life quality and health of women. Women are the most powerful consumers of health products. When we serve women well, we are serving the entire population,” Bichsel says.

Kasha started as an online shop. Now, the website serves mainly as a channel to showcase products.

“The majority of our consumer customers order their products by SMS or short codes, via call centres or through WhatsApp. No internet connection or smartphone is required for ordering from Kasha.”

Bichsel says that she was almost shocked when she realised how little people knew and understood about health issues in East Africa.

“For example, there is no testing for diabetes. People do not know about post-coital contraception even though it is readily available. Many believe that contraceptive pills cause infertility. The need for health education is massive.”

According to Bichsel, cheap but potentially dangerous Chinese medicines are a major problem in Africa. Through Kasha, consumers have access to safe but affordable medicine.

“We have also invested in the cold chain of many medicines, such as insulin, which involves many challenges here,” Bichsel says.

Finnfund and other investors support Kasha’s growth

In 2016, Kasha was the first digital growth company in Rwanda. In the early years, the company was mainly financed by individual angel investors.

“We started small and tested what works and what does not work. Early on, when our revenue was barely 100,000 dollars, Kasha was not an attractive project for major investors, such as Finnfund,” Bichsel says.

Bichsel finds Finnfund a valuable and important partner because Finnfund understands how difficult it is to grow a business in Africa.

“Johanna Raehalme, who has been responsible for Finnfund’s investment in Kasha since the very beginning, is now a member of our board. Even though we now have nearly 40 investors, Finnfund is still an important partner,” Bichsel says.

Despite its humble beginnings in a small country, Kasha has aimed for growth from the start.

“We have already achieved our goal of becoming a market leader in Africa. From the very beginning, our objective has been to expand and become a global company. Next, we aim to expand to Asia and Latin America. My personal dream is to become listed on the New York stock exchange,” Bichsel says.

Julkaistu 12.12.2024