Leapfrog Investments, which invested in leading East African pharmacy chain Goodlife in November 2016, has now taken a stake in Pyramid Group. Pyramid Group is a Tanzania-based East African distributor of medical devices and pharmaceutical products.
Pyramid Group is a leading pharma and medical devices distributor in East Africa, founded in 2001. In the pharmaceutical sector it works with companies including GSK, HBM Group, Zifam, Mylan, Medichemie and Micro Labs. In the diagnostics and medical devices sector it works with companies including BD, Human, Bio-Rad, Merck Millipore, Sysmex and Mediclone Biotech.
Primarily an East African distributor, Pyramid’s products are distributed in Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, Mozambique, Ethiopia. It also has some distribution in Nigeria and Ghana.
Leapfrog Investments has not disclosed the size of its stake, nor the deal value. The Pyramid investment gives the company considerable synergies in the pharma space: Leapfrog’s other main investment in East African healthcare is pharmacy chain Goodlife, which has 32 branches in Kenya and stores in Kampala and Entebbe. In July 2018, the company signed a partnership in Uganda with Vivo Energy, the pan-African Shell service station licensee, to open pharmacies on Shell forecourts. Vivo Energy has 1,800 Shell-branded petrol stations across 15 African countries. It operates 117 service stations in Uganda and 123 service stations in Kenya.
