Lifebank

LifeBank is a healthcare technology and logistics company headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria, founded in 2016 by Temie Giwa-Tubosun, who serves as CEO. The company addresses shortages of essential medical products at the hospital level, initially focusing on blood: it connects hospitals to blood banks and blood banks to donors, hosts blood drives, and delivers blood to hospitals in under 55 minutes within a cold chain described as meeting WHO and EU recommendations. Its product range covers blood, oxygen, medical consumables and medical equipment, supported by medical supply chain logistics services.

The business grew out of the One Percent Project, a non-governmental organisation founded by Giwa-Tubosun in May 2012 to promote voluntary blood donation in Nigeria, which collected over 3,100 imperial pints of blood. In December 2015 the initiative was converted into LifeBank as a commercial endeavour, with the founding of the company dated to January 2016 in one account. LifeBank was incubated at Co-Creation Hub in Yaba, Lagos, and operates in Nigeria.

Founding story

Founder Temie Giwa-Tubosun, born in Ila Orangun, Osun State, worked in health programmes including an internship with Paths2 in Abuja, a World Health Organization graduate fellowship in Geneva, Fairview Health Services in Minnesota, and a Global Health Corps fellowship in Mbarara, Uganda. In May 2012 she founded the One Percent Blood Donation Enlightenment Foundation (One Percent Project) to tackle blood shortage and donation apathy in Nigeria. The organisation became the commercial entity LifeBank in December 2015, with the company's founding dated to January 2016; the effort was also inspired by complications surrounding the birth of her first child.

Business model

LifeBank operates as a commercial medical distribution and logistics business, using data and technology to source and deliver essential medical products — blood, oxygen, medical consumables and equipment — to hospitals, while also running blood drives in collaboration with state government blood transfusion services to build supply.

Traction

As at January 2017 the company had delivered over 2,000 imperial pints (about 1,100 litres) of blood to patients across the country, and delivers an average of 300 imperial pints (about 170 litres) of blood a month to more than 170 hospitals in the state. Over a four-year period it reported distributing roughly 26,000 products to more than 10,000 patients in nearly 700 Nigerian hospitals.

Latest developments

The company has continued hiring in Lagos, including a Growth Lead role focused on partnerships, new market entry and product launches across Nigeria.