Africa Health Ventures #10: From Lagos to Times Square
August was slow but September is off to the races.
August was slow but September is off to the races.
Whether it’s the Gates Foundation and Field putting $11M towards maternal, newborn, and child health in Nigeria, or seeing Nigeria’s RxAll and Egypt’s Rology featured on center stage in Times Square, healthtech in Africa is picking up steam.
Over at Africa Health Ventures, our work was featured by the industry-leading impact investing community at Toniic. Though TechCrunch covered our first investment a few months ago, this month we formally launched the Africa HealthTech Fund. So we’re busy building our network of mission-aligned investors, founders, and experts. Things are moving a mile a minute.
With that, let’s dive into the 9 new healthtech deals, 10 upcoming events, and 11 startup opportunities we’ve identified this month.
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Deals
Field, a Nigerian pharmaceutical supply chain company has secured $11M in funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The startup is launching a route-to-market service to introduce new therapies for maternal, newborn, and child health using their proprietary technology, distribution, and financing services. Field's network currently supports over 40,000 healthcare providers in Kenya and Nigeria.
Kasha, an e-commerce platform initially focused on women's health and personal care products in East Africa, has secured new funding from Sanofi, the global pharmaceutical company. Kasha's mission is to improve access to health and personal care products for women in emerging markets.
Data Tyr from Algerian healthtech has secured funding through Digital Africa's Fuzé program, a venture capital initiative supporting early-stage African startups. The company's offers data analytics, tailored metadata, and artificial intelligence algorithms targeted at the pharmaceutical sector.
Ananya Health received a $150K investment from eha Impact Ventures. Ananya Health’s portable cryoablation technology ensures timely prevention of cervical cancer.
DEG Impulse from KfW announced the final investments from their 6th develoPPP Ventures cohort supporting startups in Kenya:
Rology is an AI-powered teleradiology platform which tackles radiologist shortages in underserved regions.
Cliniva provides an affordable, personalized women's healthcare services in Kenya. The startup uses a hybrid model of neighborhood mini-clinics and telemedicine.
Figorr develops a real-time monitoring technology for perishable goods in transit, optimizing supply chains for both agricultural and medical clients.
DOT Glasses distributes low-cost adjustable eyeglasses. The company's innovative approach uses just six lens options to correct 85% of vision impairments, eliminating the need for optometrists in underserved areas.
LyfPlus in Tanzania joined the prestigious Techstars Washington DC accelerator powered by J.P. Morgan. LyfPlus provides module-based customizable software for health facilities to set up custom digital health products that suit their patient needs.
Syndicate Bio from Nigeria was selected to join the Techstars Physical Health Fort Worth Accelerator. Syndicate Bio is a precision medicine and genomics company powering drug discovery and development.
Aspen Pharmacare, a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer in South Africa, has secured a $600M loan facility from a consortium of development finance institutions, including IFC, Proparco, DEG, and DFC. This significant investment aims to bolster Africa's pharmaceutical sector by increasing the production capacity for vaccines and other medical treatments on the continent.
News
RxAll and Rology were features in the Norrsken Impact/100, an annual ranking initiative by the Norrsken Foundation to showcase the top 100 impact startups globally. As part of this, they were showcased in Times Square during the United Nations General Assembly in New York City in September.
The Nutritious Food Financing Facility (N3F) from Incofin Investment Management and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) has made its inaugural investments in two companies: AACE Foods, a Nigerian food processing company, and Asili Oils, a Ugandan producer of nutritious cooking oils.
Jacaranda Health has partnered with eHealth Africa to expand its AI-powered PROMPTS messaging program to Nigeria, aiming to improve maternal and newborn health outcomes.
Meta's Llama Impact Grant Innovation Awards have recognized HelpMum, a Nigerian healthtech startup, for its use of AI to reduce maternal and infant mortality in Africa. Jacaranda Health was also awarded for leveraging AI to enhance maternal health services through PROMPTS.
Villgro Africa announced their support for 19 startups as part of their 2024 Women-Led Enterprises in Africa cohort.
Safaricom has invested Sh104.8B ($718M) in the digitization of Kenya's health sector, including the development of electronic health records and telemedicine services. The investment aims to improve healthcare access and efficiency across the country, with Safaricom's CEO Peter Ndegwa emphasizing the company's commitment to leveraging technology for social impact in line with their goal to become a purpose-led technology company.
AXIAN Group, a pan-African conglomerate, has acquired a significant stake in WIASSUR, a leading insurance company in Côte d'Ivoire. The acquisition includes WIASSUR's health insurance offerings, contributing to the development of the insurance sector in Côte d'Ivoire.
Development Partners International (DPI), a leading private equity firm focused on Africa, has announced the successful exit of Kelix Bio, a pharmaceutical platform company. Kelix Bio aims to improve access to quality, affordable medicines across Africa by acquiring and integrating pharmaceutical assets.
For policy-makers promoting the healthtech ecosystem in Africa, the HealthTech Hub published its policy blueprint to fast-track healthtech innovations in public health in Africa.
Events
Will you be in Kigali, San Francisco, or Cape Town this October? Reply to this email to let us know.
Oct 7-9 in London: AFSIC – Investing in Africa is an annual conference focused on facilitating investment into Africa by connecting investors with business leaders and opportunities across the continent.
Oct 9-10 in Ingelheim, Germany: Making More Health Together from Boehringer Ingelheim and Ashoka convenes entrepreneurs, impact investors, NGOs, foundations, and others to identify better ways of improving health globally.
Oct 13-15 in Berlin: The World Health Summit is an annual global health conference that brings together leaders from academia, politics, civil society, and the private sector to address pressing global health challenges.
Oct 17-18 in Berlin: Frontiers Health is a global conference focused on digital health innovation and investment, bringing together entrepreneurs, investors, healthcare professionals, and technology experts.
Oct 22-24 in Cape Town: Africa Health showcases medical equipment, services, and technologies.
Oct 23-24 in Amsterdam: The Global Impact Investing Network Forum 2024 convenes the global institutional impact investing community.
Oct 28-30 in San Francisco: SOCAP brings together global innovators, investors, entrepreneurs, and social impact leaders to discuss and advance solutions for a more sustainable and equitable world.
Oct 29-31 in Kigali: The Africa HealthTech Summit takes place alongside the Mobile World Congress and the HealthTech Hub Investor Summit. It brings together stakeholders including healthtech startups, large corporations, government, donors, investors, and other stakeholders.
Nov 26-29 in Rabat, Morocco: The International Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA) brings together public health experts, researchers, policymakers, and stakeholders to discuss critical issues and advancements in public health in Africa.
Opportunities for Startups
Due Oct 6: UNDP's Timbuktoo HealthTech Startup Accelerator Program is calling for applications from African healthtech startups to join a 6-month accelerator focused on boosting innovation in healthcare across the continent.
Due Oct 8: JSI is strengthening routine immunization services in Côte d'Ivoire. They are seeking a contractor to improve vaccination coverage and reduce vaccine-preventable diseases through various interventions, including capacity building, community engagement, and supply chain management.
Due Oct 11: Johnson & Johnson's Amplifying Access to Mental Health Innovation Challenge supports innovators developing new solutions for mental health access particularly in low-resource settings.
Due Oct 11: GIZ is tackling menstrual Health in Rwanda. They are seeking a contractor to plan and conduct trainings on the production, distribution, and sales of reusable sanitary pads.
Due Oct 12: The Foundation for Innovative Diagnostics (FIND) is seeking AI experts in machine learning and natural language processing to support in the assessment and implementation of AI technologies.
Due Oct 17: The IBM Call for Code Global Challenge invites developers and problem solvers to create innovative applications using IBM technologies and open-source software to tackle pressing global issues. The grand prize is $50K.
Due Oct 25: JSI’s Digital Health Enterprise Architecture for Ethiopia project seeks to create a strategic framework to guide the implementation and integration of digital health solutions, aiming to improve healthcare delivery and information management across the country.
Due Dec 31: The SwedBio Collaboration Grant typically provides small grants on the order of $50K USD to locally-driven, sustainable solutions addressing Food & Health among other topics
Due Dec 31: Gray Matters Capital's coLABS provides $50K to $250K in revenue-share investments to early stage social enterprises supporting women and girls globally.
Due Nov 21: The Aurora Tech Award for female entrepreneurs is an international competition that recognizes and supports women entrepreneurs in the tech industry, offering a total prize fund of $55K. The competition is open to women-led startups in various tech sectors. Past winners have included Folake Owodunni of Emergency Response Africa.
(Ongoing): The Public Health Institute is seeking a Digital Health Advisor to support digital health initiatives in low- and middle-income countries.
More Than Just Glasses: Reaching the Bottom of the Pyramid
Prescription eyeglasses pay for themselves, even at the bottom of the pyramid. So why do we still live in a world where nearly a billion people have not been able to get eyecare?
Toniic, an industry-leading global community of impact investors, recently featured an article about Africa Health Ventures and our investment into DOT Glasses. DOT Glasses embeds the provision of prescription eyeglasses within a scalable business model that's already bringing $5 glasses to 5 countries across Africa. This has many follow-on benefits:
DOT Glasses needs to solve the whole picture of access to eyecare. This has forced them to innovate not just on the eyeglasses, but also with their “optical shop in a bag” for vision testing and their diverse network of distributors to access people who have never had access before.
DOT Glasses is accountable to the African consumer, even at the bottom of the pyramid. This means their product is not only robust and durable but also customizable, comfortable, and fashionable.
Economic innovation. There’s no reason eyeglasses need to be as expensive as they are, anywhere in the world. DOT Glasses has the potential to disrupt a market much larger than Africa, while at the same time improving the quality of life for millions who need it most.
For these reasons and more, Africa Health Ventures invests in game-changing innovations to unlock Africa's healthcare markets. Read the full Toniic article here.
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We’ll be back in a month with our next roundup. See you then!