In November 2018, we invested in Kasha, an e-commerce platform for women’s health, personal care, and beauty products in East Africa (Kenya, Rwanda).

Women in emerging markets struggle to access high-quality menstrual and sexual health products. They often encounter social stigma, stock-outs, and counterfeit products – especially related to sexual and reproductive health products. This has far-reaching negative impact. For example, one out of ten of girls across Africa drop out of school due to inadequate menstrual care, and young women across the continent are the single largest demographic of HIV-infected people globally.

Founded in Rwanda in 2016, Kasha wants to make it easy for women to get the health and personal care products that they need, especially in low-income and rural areas of emerging markets. Kasha does this through selling health and personal care products on e-commerce platform, accessible through basic phones, smartphone applications, and a website.  Kasha then delivers these critical products to last mile customers through a combination of delivery mechanisms such as direct delivery and an agent network.

We are looking forward to working closely with Kasha’s team over the coming years and expanding access to critical health products to women across Africa.