Today we’re releasing our annual review of the healthcare investment landscape in Africa for 2024.
To put it bluntly: the funding winter is real. Healthcare investments dropped 70% in value, 40% in deal count, and 24% by number of investors compared to the previous year. In 2023 we celebrated a 2000% increase in women-founded healthcare business raising in Africa, but this past year has seen a massive decline in gender-diverse deals.
The funding winter is global, but it hit Africa disproportionately hard as international investors pulled back from the continent. Healthcare founders were hit doubly hard as private investors gravitated towards more traditional investments in fintech, while impact investors turned to climate. It’s a grim picture.
But even in a harsh macroeconomic landscape, healthcare remains an essential market. Africa is already home to a quarter of the world’s children, and by 2050 it will house a quarter of the world’s population. This growth will force Africa’s healthcare systems to scale, and we have the opportunity today to build the rails that drive that scale.
Let’s dive in. We’re going to look at the biggest deals, the most active investors, and the type of innovations that are re-shaping healthcare in Africa today.
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Deals, Deals, Deals
We tracked 50 deals funding healthcare startups in Africa in 2024.
What Were The Biggest Deals in 2024?
2024's biggest deals included:
🫧 Hewatele, a Kenya-based medical oxygen producer, secured $20 million in debt and equity from Finnfund, DFC, SEDF, UBS Optimus, and Grand Challenges Canada to expand their production and distribution of affordable medical oxygen to healthcare facilities across East Africa.
🚚 Field Intelligence, a Nigerian supply chain company, received a $11M grant from the Gates Foundation to improve the route-to-market for maternal and child health products to hard-to-reach markets in Africa.
💊 Yodawy in Egypt received a $10 million investment from Ezdhar to expand their online pharmacy and digital healthcare services in the MENA region.
🩺 Ilara Health in Kenya secured $4.2 million in equity and debt from DOB Equity, Philips Foundation, AAIC, Angaza, Black Pearl, Alphamundi, Kiva Capital, Boehringer Ingelheim, and Africa Health Ventures. Ilara Health enables thousands of clinics to access essential medicines, equipment, and diagnostics through a combination of tech, financing, and supply chain optimization.
👓 Lapaire, an African eyewear company, raised $3.5 million from I&P, AAIC, FINCA Ventures, Beyond Capital, Proparco, and the Transform Health Fund to expand their mission of providing affordable eyecare and prescription glasses across Africa.
Dawa Mkononi, mDaaS, RecoMed, and Alma Clinics also closed significant funding in 2024.
Which Countries Secured the Most Funding?
Kenya is often called the “Silicon Savannah” and in 2024 it continues to dominate the healthcare investment landscape. Nigeria and Egypt also saw significant deal counts.
South Africa, the fourth of the Big Four countries which typically receive the most funding, saw fewer deals in 2024 than usual. But while the deal count in South Africa fell behind, the total investment amount remained high and continues to outpace the rest of Africa.
Tanzania and Cote d’Ivoire both saw a significant portion of 2024’s healthcare investment. This was driven by investor interest in the eyeglasses company Lapaire in Cote d’Ivoire, a gateway to larger Francophone Africa markets, as well as Dawa Mkononi, a comprehensive tech platform for delivering medicines to the growing pharma market in Tanzania.
Collectively in 2024 we estimate $75 million was invested in healthcare startups in Africa.
A Step Back for Female Founders
Unlike 2023 (when a third of funds raised went to gender-diverse founding teams), in 2024 only 1 in 10 investments went to female-only founding teams and 1 in 4 went to gender-diverse teams. The vast majority of funding went to male-only founding teams. This downward trend is visible across sectors, where we see female founders have never been so underrepresented.
But at least in healthcare, female founders are doing better than in other sectors.
Which Products And Innovations Are Getting Traction?
Supply chain innovations lead the pack, including pharmacy platforms, inventory management, and distribution management. This is driven by the fact that Africa’s population is booming and that population needs access to medicines.
Beyond that, many founders are chipping away at the opportunity presented by digitally-enabled primary care as well as low-cost, high-impact interventions in wellness including preventative care, education, and self-care.
The long path to market and high startup costs limit the number of founders working in biotech, manufacturing, and deeptech.
What Types of Healthcare Are Getting Funded?
Most startups are cross-cutting. They provide products that strengthen health systems and address multiple health specialties e.g. supply chain solutions, digitally-enabled primary care, integrated healthcare, or financing.
Beyond that, there is a long tail of startups targeting specific health specialties, including radiology, women’s health, and eyecare.
Who Are The Most Active Investors?
The most active healthcare investors in Africa by deal count in 2024 are:
🏦 DEG a subsidiary of the German development finance institution KFW, provides long-term capital and support to private companies in emerging markets, including significant healthcare investments across Africa.
🚀 Launch Africa Ventures is a diversified pan-African VC fund that invests in early-stage tech startups, with several healthcare companies in their portfolio and a particular focus on seed to pre-Series A investments.
🌍 54 Collective (formerly Founders Factory Africa) is a venture studio and accelerator that builds and invests in healthcare and other tech startups across Africa, providing both capital and hands-on operational support.
💉 Transform Health Fund by AfricInvest (one of Africa's largest private equity firms) is a dedicated healthcare investment fund that provides debt financing to scale up innovative healthcare solutions across the continent.
🗾 AAIC Investment is a Japan-based VC firm investing in healthcare and medtech startups across Africa, with a particular interest in companies that can forge connections between African and Asian markets.
Transform Health Fund is a notable addition to healthcare investing community. In 2024 they closed their oversubscribed $111 million fund. The German government has also been more active, as evidenced by its work through DEG, KfW, and GHIC.
Where Do Investors Come From?
With the decline of international investors in 2024, Africa-based investors took a front seat. These include notables such as Launch Africa Investors, AfricInvest, Axian Group, and Microtraction.
Methodology
We include companies whose primary markets are in Africa, and whose founders are based in Africa or are of African descent. This analysis includes deals of $100K or more in the form of equity, debt, or grants. We exclude loans and private equity deals with large established businesses such as hospitals and pharmaceutical companies. Examples of what we excluded include:
IFC, Proparco, DEG, and DFC’s $600 million loan to South Africa’s pharmaceutical company Aspen Pharmacare
DPI, BII and EBRD’s exit from the pharmaceutical company KELIX bio to Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Company
Note that a significant fraction of deals are unreported in Africa. In this emerging venture capital ecosystem, it is less common than in other markets to make a public announcement of funds raised. As such, please take this analysis with a grain of salt. It is not a complete picture.
Dive Deeper
Here are a few additional resources for those looking to learn more:
Africa: The Big Deal releases a reasonably-priced database updated monthly listing all $100K+ funding deals secured by startups in Africa.
The Partech Africa Report gives an overview of the venture capital industry in Africa.
The Impact Investment Initiative for Global Health (Triple I for GH) has released its annual report for 2023-2024.
What did we miss? Hit reply to share any deals, investors, or other observations relevant to the full picture of healthcare funding in Africa in 2024. You can also:
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Next week we’ll share our monthly rundown of opportunities, funding, news, and events relevant for healthcare in Africa. If you haven’t already, subscribe below to get it in your inbox.
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