30 African startups in healthcare selected to receive support from Gates Foundation, others

Investing in Innovation (i3), a pan-African support initiative for African health supply chain start-ups, has announced its first cohort of 30 companies.

This investment is through the pan-African Investing in Innovation (i3 program) funded by Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Africa, AUDA-NEPAD, and AmerisourceBergen.

Nearly 50% of the start-ups are women-led, and 30% of the companies are operating in Francophone Africa.

The selected start-ups will receive a $50,000 grant and access to market opportunities to catalyse growth-driven partnerships with donors, industry and institutional stakeholders.

i3 unites leading donors, industry and African institutions to jump-start a new way of doing business to support African-led innovations in health.

Selected start-ups will receive a $50,000 grant and support to catalyse growth-driven partnerships with donors, industry and institutions.

The 30 companies selected hail from 14 African countries. Operating in early- and growth stages, the companies are delivering novel solutions for device and medicines distribution, stock management and financing, authentication, traceability, medical waste management and more – demonstrating that African-built solutions are poised to help transform access to health products in many ways.

47% of the companies are women-led (which the program defines as having at least one woman with an equity stake and active executive leadership role), and 30% of the companies are operating in Francophone Africa.

Ann Allen, Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation comments “Digitally-enabled, locally-led innovations have huge potential to help address the challenges of access to medicines for historically unserved patients in Africa. We are thrilled to see strong women leaders at the helm of many of these start-ups, as we know innovation ecosystems are strengthened by diversity.”

The selected companies are, in alphabetical order: Chekkit Technologies, Disrupt Pharma Tech Africa (Medsaf), DrugStoc Ehub Limited, Erith Health Services, Gricd, LifeBank, Lifestores Healthcare, OneHealth, ClinicPesa, Damu Sasa, The Pathology Network, Negus Med, Signalytic, Viebeg Technologies, Zuri Health, Xetova, Cure Bionics, DeepEcho, Dr Sett, Infiuss Health Limited, Medevice, Meditect, Sobrus, Valorigo, Azanza Health, Appy Saude, Aviro Health, Contro, VaxiGlobal, Zinacare.

Dr Abdullahi Sheriff, Associate Vice President of Global Market Access at MSD noted “The innovation
represented by the start-ups selected is inspiring.

At MSD, we are excited by the opportunity to
collaborate with these leading innovators through i3, to help transform health care supply chains and
improve access to medicines across Africa.”

i3 is coordinated by Salient Advisory, SCIDaR, and SouthBridge A&I and is operationalized by leading technology hubs across the continent: CCHub for West Africa, Startupbootcamp for Southern Africa, IMPACT Lab for North and French-speaking Africa, and Villgro Africa for East Africa.

These hubs are responsible for the selection process and the follow-up of the startups throughout the program.