Nigerian health-tech startup Mariam Grey is combining artificial intelligence with USSD technology and a network of verified pharmacies to expand access to medicines and professional pharmaceutical services, particularly for people who may not own smartphones or have reliable internet connections.
Founded in 2018 by licensed pharmacist Jennifer Esiaba, the platform connects patients with pharmacies and licensed pharmacists remotely.
At the centre of its technology is an AI assistant called Mummy Grey, which can recommend over-the-counter medicines based on symptoms, screen uploaded prescriptions before passing them to pharmacists for confirmation and facilitate doctor consultations.
However, one of the more significant elements of the business is what happens when artificial intelligence meets much simpler technology.
USSD Takes Health-Tech Beyond Smartphones
Many digital-health platforms are designed primarily for smartphone-owning consumers with reliable mobile data.
Mariam Grey has taken a different approach.
The company developed a USSD channel that allows people without smartphones or dependable internet connections to access parts of its service. It also provides multilingual support.
That design decision addresses one of the biggest challenges facing African technology companies: building products that work within the infrastructure customers actually have rather than the infrastructure developers wish they had.
For healthcare, the issue becomes even more important.
Patients in underserved communities may face long journeys to pharmacies, uncertainty about medicine availability and difficulties verifying whether drugs are being dispensed appropriately.
Mariam Grey says its model combines technology with human oversight, with clinically serious issues routed to qualified professionals rather than being handled exclusively by AI.
Startup Crosses 9,000 Paying Patients
The company says it has surpassed 9,000 active paying patients across multiple Nigerian states and works with hundreds of partner pharmacies.
It has also introduced a subscription model and Grey Card loyalty programme as it attempts to increase recurring revenue and customer retention.
Mariam Grey’s wider platform includes pharmacy inventory aggregation, telepharmacy consultations, medicine delivery, home laboratory sample collection, digital doctor consultations, HMO integration and community health programmes.
The startup has largely been bootstrapped while also receiving angel backing through SAFE agreements.
It is now raising a $350,000 pre-seed round to improve its product, strengthen technology infrastructure and expand operations.
20,000-Patient Target
Mariam Grey is targeting 20,000 active patients within the next 18 months, with a longer-term ambition of serving more than 300,000 people across Nigeria.
Achieving that scale will require the company to navigate challenges that have troubled many African health-tech startups.
Healthcare is heavily dependent on trust. Technology companies must also contend with regulation, fragmented distribution networks and the practical difficulty of delivering physical medicines reliably.
But Mariam Grey’s combination of AI and USSD highlights an important direction for African technology.
The continent’s most commercially useful AI products may not necessarily be those that replicate Silicon Valley applications.
They could instead be systems that combine advanced AI with existing African infrastructure — including USSD, mobile money, agent networks and low-cost smartphones — to solve problems specific to local markets.
If Mariam Grey can successfully scale that model, its importance could extend beyond digital pharmacy into a broader demonstration of how AI can be adapted to the realities of healthcare delivery in emerging markets.
