Africa Health Ventures #18: Goodlife Delivers Landmark Healthcare Exit
What can founders and investors learn from this success?
Leapfrog Investments has announced a landmark deal, resulting in one of the largest payouts for healthcare investors in Africa. They sold their stake in Goodlife Pharmacy—East Africa’s largest retail pharmacy chain—to the multinational company CFAO.
What can founders and investors learn from this success?
Dual-market strategies work. Companies can serve both low-income and high-income markets profitably. Half of Goodlife Pharmacy’s clients come from low- and middle-income populations.
Brick and mortar healthcare businesses can return investments, especially when they deliver essential healthcare products such as medicines. Alongside this reality, Goodlife has intentionally managed capital expenditures and kept assets light by renting land, building prefab stores, and managing inventory efficiently.
Economies of scale exist. Goodlife keeps medicines affordable by procuring in bulk, removing intermediary distributors, and offering generic brands.
Technology plays an essential role in enabling economies of scale and driving demand. Goodlife runs an e-commerce site with WhatsApp sales channels, POS inventory management, and the myGoodlifeClub loyalty program.
Partnerships expand value-added services. Goodlife welcomes partnerships to provide laboratory and teleconsultations with companies such as Tibu Health and HealthX.
International strategics drive exits by acquisition. In this case, the acquirer, CFAO Healthcare, is part of a French multinational company and a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Japanese trading company, Toyota Tsusho Corporation.
Exits don’t happen overnight. The relationship with CFAO was developed with a minority purchase of Goodlife Pharmacy in 2022, followed by consistent execution and strong growth to date.
To learn more about Leapfrog Investments, tune into our interview with the LeapFrog partner who led this deal, Dr. Biju Mohandas.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg this month. Read on to learn about how one of the most active venture studios on the continent lost its $106 million grant; how Kera Health in Senegal secured $10 million from IFC; and Bill Gates’ $7.5 million commitment to Bosun Tijani for an AI hub in Nigeria. We also cover 12 deals, 12 new opportunities, and 12 events relevant for healthcare founders in Africa.
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Deals
🔄 LeapFrog Investments has completed a full exit from Goodlife Pharmacy, selling its remaining stake to CFAO Healthcare. The deal transfers control of East Africa’s largest retail pharmacy platform to a pan-African pharmaceutical distributor.
🌟 Kera Health Platforms in Senegal secured $10 million equity investment from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The AI health-tech startup, founded by former Google, AXA, and MTN executives, provides digital primary care, diagnostics, and preventive health tools across West Africa.
💊 CureRoot in South Africa has secured pre-seed funding from Africa Health Ventures, OneBio, Kaleo Ventures, and Alpha Gaps. CureRoot leverages the biodiversity of Africa and modern AI tools to discover new pharmaceutical drugs from African medicinal plants.
💉 Eyone Medical raised $3 million from Oyass Capital, a government-backed SME fund in Senegal. The company’s AI-powered Shared Patient Record system is deployed across over 60 healthcare institutions in Francophone West Africa.
👓 Optique received undisclosed funding from Knife Capital’s KNF II fund. Optique is a digitally-enabled optometry franchise with 19 branches in South Africa.
🧬 Altera Biosciences has closed a $1.6M pre-seed round led by OneBio and E Squared. Altera is developing gene‑edited “universal donor” cells that bypass immune rejection, with potential to disrupt transplantation and regenerative medicine on the continent.
❄️ Keep IT Cool (KIC) received an undisclosed investment from the Global Innovation Fund. The Kenya-based startup provides smart cold chain and solar-powered distribution tech to reduce food spoilage and boost incomes for fishing and farming communities.
🏥 Alameda Healthcare Group has secured a $190 million minority investment from Development Partners International and co-investors. This is the largest ever healthcare investment of its kind in Egypt, supporting Alameda’s expansion and tech upgrades across Egypt and in the Middle East.
👩🏻⚕️ Medlane Holdings, a day hospital network in Botswana has received a 76% stake acquisition from Africa Lighthouse Capital. The deal enables expansion of specialist services like corneal transplants and occupational health programs, aiming to localise complex care and reduce medical tourism outflows.
💉 Deltamune (Pty) Ltd has been acquired by Vaxxinova International in a strategic exit by Phatisa Food Fund 2. Deltamune is a leading South Africa-based vaccine manufacturer.
🌱 Alterra Africa Accelerator Fund I has received a USD 15 million commitment from the Swiss Development Finance Institution (SIFEM) managed by Alterra Capital Partners. The fund provides flexible, founder‑friendly financing and operational support to early‑stage African startups in sectors including healthcare.
ICYMI: Be Girl received 500K equity investment from Grand Challenges Canada. Be Girl is a social enterprise from Mozambique that sells high-quality, reusable menstrual products in Africa.
ICYMI: Meditect in Côte d'Ivoire received a 500K+ grant from Grand Challenges Canada. Meditect is a healthtech startup that digitizes pharmacies in West Africa.
News
Bill Gates announced a $7.5 million commitment to the Nigerian Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scaling Hub aimed at expanding the use of AI in critical sectors such as healthcare, agriculture, and education.
In a major blow to Africa’s startup ecosystem, 54 Collective (formerly Founders Factory Africa) has shut down its venture studio operations. This follows the news that the Mastercard Foundation has suspended its $106 million grant to the organization over alleged misuse of funds. 54 Collective was one of the most active investors in Africa last year, not only in healthcare but across all sectors.
The Nigerian voice AI startup Intron demonstrated that its Sahara voice AI outperforms OpenAI, Google, AWS, and Azure in recognizing over 300 African accents. Their models deliver more than 92% accuracy on diverse accents and are already deployed across hospitals, court systems, financial services, and government agencies across Africa.
Google has selected 15 African startups for its Generative AI accelerator program to support innovations. The cohort includes Myltura from Nigeria and YeneHealth from Ethiopia.
Google has open-sourced its MedGemma models for medical AI, which combine text and image analysis to support healthcare application development.
Google will invest $37 million across Africa to boost AI research, support agriculture-related tools for food security, and expand access in local languages..
A Nigerian court has blocked the sale of 54gene’s assets, following legal action by founder Dr. Abasi Ene‑Obong, who accuses major investors of orchestrating the company’s collapse through disputed governance decisions.
Nice Deer, an Egyptian health InsurTech company, received regulatory approval to launch the country’s first fully digital factoring platform for medical insurance claims. The platform uses AI to turn delayed payments into real-time cash flow for healthcare providers, tackling liquidity issues in Egypt’s health insurance market.
Telecom Egypt signed an MoU with India’s KareXpert to develop a national digital healthcare platform hosted on Egypt’s cloud infrastructure.
💡 Opinion: JHPIEGO and Villgro Africa collaborated on an op-ed proposing a shift in how African governments approach universal health coverage by introducing a model called “Access-as-a-Service.” Instead of investing heavily in physical infrastructure, the model suggests governments subscribe to digitally delivered primary healthcare services—like telemedicine, AI support, and mobile apps—to increase access and flexibility while reducing cost and fragmentation.
🎤 Podcast: TechAfrica News interviewed the Chief Digital Advisor at the Africa CDC, Jean Philbert Nsengimana, on the challenges and opportunity for healthtech in Africa. Nsengimana highlighted the near-term potential of telemedicine, AI, and a harmonized continental framework led by Africa CDC.
Opportunities
Due Aug 11: DealRoom Nigeria Investor Readiness Accelerator helps Nigerian women-led startups secure funding through pitch prep, mentorship, and investor access.
Due Aug 15: Unitaid invites sub-Saharan African implementers to propose scalable, community‑focused delivery models for twice-yearly lenacapavir injections as PrEP for HIV prevention. Total funding available of up to $25 million.
Due Aug 22: Entrepreneurship Exchange Program brings together students from Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and the U.S. in virtual, team-based entrepreneurship training to develop civic-minded business concepts over eight weeks.
Due Aug 22: MEST AI Startup Program is a fully funded, 7‑ to 12‑month immersive program for West African AI startup founders, including technical coaching, MVP development, incubation, and pitch opportunities.
Due Aug 31: Mastercard Foundation Scholars Program at McGill University invites young African leaders under 35 to apply for fully funded master’s degrees in select fields.
Due Sept 7: Ebbe Nielsen Challenge is calling for innovative tools that leverage biodiversity data to advance open science. Winners will share a prize pool of up to €20,000.
Due Sept 14: START Fellowship empowers young founders (18‑25, enrolled at a partner university in Africa or Latin America) with an MVP and co-founder to participate in a 3‑month accelerator in Switzerland.
Due Sept 15: Joint Innovation Facility (JIF) is offering €100,000–€250,000 in grants to African-led consortia deploying climate-smart and digital innovations (e.g., AI, IoT) across Africa and Europe. Eligible partnerships must include at least one African and one European partner.
Due Sept 17: Innovest Ignite Accelerator is an 8‑week fully remote accelerator for pre‑seed and seed-stage African-founded startups, offering coaching, mentorship, resources, and a live Demo-Day pitch opportunity.
Due Sept 23: Africa Prize for Engineering Innovation by the Royal Academy of Engineering awards commercialisation support and up to £50,000 in prize funding to engineers in sub‑Saharan Africa.
Due Sept 30: L’Oréal Sustainable Innovation Accelerator invites startups and SMEs with deployment-ready climate, packaging, water, or nature-based innovations to apply for a 12-month accelerator. Startups providing hygiene or nutrition products may benefit from strategic connections to the L’Oréal Groupe.
Due Oct 20: Antler, Lagos is an 8-week in-person program that offers $100K for 10% in companies that pass the Antler Investment Committee.
Ongoing: SECO Startup Fund provides senior secured loans of up to USD 1.2 million to post-revenue startups in emerging-market countries linked to Switzerland, with 2–5 year repayment terms
Ongoing: Founders Pledge accepts proposals year-round and typically awards between $50,000 and $300,000, with rare grants up to $5 million. Focus areas include global health, catastrophic risk, climate, and animal welfare.
Ongoing: Dovetail Impact Foundation invites nonprofits working in countries like Madagascar, Mozambique, DRC, Niger, and Ethiopia to submit expressions of interest for scalable poverty-alleviation projects across sectors such as health.
Ongoing: the Global Distributors Collective (GDC) maintains a comprehensive directory of funders for last mile distributors (including those working in health, hygiene, and sanitation).
Ongoing: Nominations for the Africa Tech Festival Awards are open. Categories include Innovation for Impact, Startup of the Year, Female Innovator of the Year, and more.
Events
Aug 26-28 in Nairobi: Africa Health Collaborative AfyaFest
Aug 27-29 in Nairobi: Transforming African MedTech Conference (TAMC)
Aug 30 in Nairobi: Longevity Unlocked
Sept 2-4 in Cape Town: World Health Expo (WHX Cape Town)
Sept 9-11 in Tunis: BigTech Africa
Sept 18 in Stellenbosch, South Africa: Cape Healthtech Connect
Sept 22-25 in Saly, Senegal: The African Forum for Research and Education in Health (AFREhealth)
Sept 29-Oct 1 in Munich: Bits & Pretzels
Oct 7-9 in Berlin: The Impact Forum from GIIN (The Global Impact Investing Network)
Oct 13-15 in Kigali: The Africa HealthTech Summit
Oct 13-17 in Dubai: GITEX
Oct 14-15 in London: Investing in Africa
Oct 14-17 in Kigali: Inspire Africa
Oct 15-16 in Lagos: MoonShot by TechCabal
Oct 23-25 in San Francisco: SOCAP
Nov 5-6 in Ingelheim, Germany: Making More Health Together
HearX: How a South African Startup took the Global Stage
Earlier this year we reported on the $100M investment into HearX, a hearing health company founded in South Africa. To unpack the deal, our founder Rowena Luk spoke with HearX’s CEO Nic Klopper and CSO Seline van der Wat in the latest edition of the Africa Health Ventures Podcast.
🎙️Catch the full interview wherever you get your podcasts.
That’s a wrap for this month. Please share reactions, deals, news, or events with us on our LinkedIn page. You can also:
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