On the opening day, i3 announced 3 new transformative deals between leading African healthtech startups and global manufacturers, collaborations that will advance cervical cancer prevention, pharmacy-based access, and malaria care.

MSD and MYDAWA unveiled a collaboration aimed at supporting MYDAWA in enhancing their concierge channel services to strengthen efforts related to cervical cancer elimination.

Through this initiative, MYDAWA will expand access to health-related services, such as at-home and in-clinic options, supported by online booking tools and educational counselling. MSD’s contribution focuses on business and technical expertise, which demonstrates how a collaboration between regional and global innovators can develop new healthcare solutions to people through novel, patient-centered models that help reduce barriers to accessing healthcare.

This initiative is centered on improving access to information and services. It does not involve the supply, promotion or distribution of any vaccines or medicinal products that are not registered.

“We’re excited to support MYDAWA in improving access to healthcare, powered by purpose and technology. Together, we’re meeting communities where they are, forging new paths for patient access and creating health markets. This is how we break down barriers across Africa, through collaborations that enable sustainable and scalable solutions,” said Dr. Priya Agrawal, Vice President, International Health Equity and Partnerships, MSD.

A Memorandum of Understanding between Nigeria’s National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP), the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC) under the Federal Ministry of Health, and Sproxil to combat malaria by improving access to diagnostics and treatments.

The partnership leverages Sproxil’s test-to-treat model and AI-powered malaria surveillance to provide real-time data from pharmacies and patent medicine vendors, enabling collaboration with pharmaceutical manufacturers and giving NMEP insights to track distribution, monitor disease patterns, and ensure accountability.

This initiative supports Nigeria’s targets of reducing malaria prevalence to below 10% and malaria-related deaths to under 50 per 1,000 live births.

Commenting on the partnership with PVAC and NMEP, Dr. Ashifi Gogo, CEO and Founder of Sproxil said:

“We are honored to partner with Nigeria’s National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) and the Presidential Initiative For Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC) in deploying AI-enhanced surveillance infrastructure that transforms every consumer product verification into timely epidemiological intelligence. This partnership demonstrates that African-led solutions, when properly supported, can drive continental health transformation while ensuring affordable anti-malarials reach the children and families who need them most.”

• Boehringer Ingelheim’s Social Engagement Fund celebrated recent investments in 3 companies driving the future of pharmacy across Africa: Dawa Mkononi (a member of the latest i3 cohort), Kasha, and Reach52.

“We are delighted to invest in three additional startups that deliver a strong impact to communities across Africa,” says Dr. Ilka Wicke, Head of Sustainability Social. “These partnerships reflect our belief that sustainable healthcare solutions are best built through collaboration – with local innovators who understand the needs on the ground and with global partners who can help scale their vision. Together, we’re making meaningful progress toward our goal of improving the lives of 50 million people by 2030. We’re thrilled to celebrate progress with our partners who share this vision across the i3 program.”

Since July, i3 has been working closely with leading innovators focused on the future of pharmacy care in Africa – Chefaa, Dawa Mkononi, Meditect, mPharma, MYDAWA, Sproxil and Zuri Health–  completing more than 110 bespoke introductions to customers and investors, generating 15 partnerships with a potential value exceeding $20 million.

At an unprecedented pace of more than one advancing partnership per week, i3 continues to deliver best-in-class growth advisory support to African healthtech innovators.

This year’s A2M brought together 15 leading African healthtech startups, whose innovations already power more than 66,000 healthcare providers across 12 African countries and are on track to reach over 167,000 providers by 2028, demonstrating a powerful channel for improving patient access and strengthening health systems.

A2M also convened 41 prominent investors, global and regional pharmaceutical manufacturers, donors, development finance institutions, and multilateral agencies, including Grand Challenges Canada, IFC, World Bank, Pfizer, Causal Foundry, Proqurable, Federal Ministry of Health, PVAC, and i3’s sponsors, who are all working to accelerate scalable innovations, create jobs, and expand healthcare impact across the continent.

“Leading healthtech startups are an increasingly powerful force across Africa, reshaping the continent’s healthcare landscape. Through Access to Markets, these innovators are linked with strategic, high-impact partners across industry, government, donors, and global health agencies, enabling them to better scale their solutions. This approach is rapidly delivering tangible results, as evidenced by the more than 100 meetings being held at this year’s event and the 3 deals announced today,” said Oladunni Lawal, Investing in Innovation Lead.

The event program also includes senior government participation, notably keynote speaker Dr. Abdu Mukhtar, National Coordinator of the Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Chain, and Dr. Leke Ojewale, Senior Technical Adviser to the Minister of Health for Nigeria.

Through initiatives like A2M, i3 is helping build a sustainable, digitally enabled future for African healthcare–one where locally led innovation, supported by global and regional partnerships, drives lasting impact at scale. i3 is supported by dedicated sponsors – the Gates Foundation, MSD, Cencora, Endless Health, HELP Logistics, Sanofi, and Boehringer Ingelheim.

Funded by the Gates Foundation, the report titled “Leading Innovations Enabling Health Product Access in Africa’‘, finds that, amid difficult macro- economic realities and dwindling investment in African technology ecosystems, a select number of African health innovators are emerging as leaders.

Having operated for 10 years on average, the 24 leading innovators collectively now partner with 100+ manufacturers and 75 public health institutions, reaching around 50,000 providers (who serve hundreds of thousands of patients per day) and delivering health products to millions of consumers directly.

Kasha made news capturing Series B investment last year, and has since gone on to build its health technology access platform and report annual revenues of more than $50 million in 2023 – the highest ever recorded by Salient’s research to date.

Like Kasha, innovators that offer digitally-enabled Order and Inventory Management services to hospitals, clinics, pharmacies and drug shops appear dominant amongst the leading companies, making up 13 of the 24 featured innovations, with operations in 30 countries.

Four leading Online Pharmacies are reaching nearly 10 million customers and generating median annual revenues of nearly $9M.

The other categories featured are innovations in Product Protection and Visibility, Medical Drone Delivery and Data Analytics.

While leading innovators now appear positioned to deliver more substantive impact, they require targeted engagement from governments, donors, industry and global health institutions to transform access for unserved populations and improve the cost-effectiveness of care.

To leverage leading innovators’ models in driving increases in access, governments, industry, donors and global health agencies should: simplify regulatory pathways; explore innovators’ ability to generate cost- savings for health systems, pursuing partnerships when the evidence is strong; and evolve contracting and payment systems to enable innovators to partner in healthcare delivery systems at larger scale.

The 24 leading innovators featured are (in alphabetical order):

1. Chefaa,
2. DrugStoc,
3. Field Inc,
4. Figorr,
5. Grinta,
6. HealthPlus,
7. Kasha,
8. LifeBank,
9. Maisha Meds,
10. Meditect,
11. mPedigree,
12. MYDAWA,
13. Pendulum,
14. PharmaSecure,
15. Remedial Health,
16. RxAll,
17. Sobrus,
18. Sproxil,
19. Talamus Health,
20. VIA Global Health,
21. Viebeg,
22. Wingcopter,
23. Yodawy and
24. Zipline.

Speaking on the launch of the report, Yomi Kazeem, engagement manager at Salient Advisory, commented:

‘’The findings underscore the remarkable resilience and growing impact of African supply chain innovators. Having tracked healthtech startups for many years, the emergence of a group of leading innovators is exciting to report. Local and global public health communities must increasingly recognize and leverage the innovators in developing reliable and resilient health supply chains.”

Ann Allen, Senior Program Officer at Gates Foundation, commented:

“Technology-enabled innovations have the potential to help reverse long-running challenges in African health systems, while creating local jobs and strengthening local health markets. The report confirms innovators are increasingly positioned to deliver on this promise. However, there is more to be done as leveraging these innovations to truly transform cost-effective access for millions of unserved Africans will require concerted efforts from governments, industry and global health agencies alike.”

To download the full market intelligence report, please click here.

Investing in Innovation Africa (i3), a pan-African initiative for start-ups building the future of healthcare supply chains, has announced its second cohort of 29 companies.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and sponsored by Cencora (formerly AmerisourceBergen), Merck Sharpe & Dohme (MSD), Microsoft, and Chemonics, i3 is dedicated to facilitating the commercialization of promising early- and growth-stage companies.

Selected startups receive introductions to leading potential customers in industry, donor agencies and governments, a $50,000 grant, and tailored investment readiness support from leading accelerators Villgro Africa, IMPACT Lab, Startupbootcamp Afritech, and CcHUB.

The 29 start-ups chosen operate in 21 different African countries, delivering digitally-enabled healthcare supply chain solutions. Innovators are building online pharmacies and telemedicine firms, as well as inventory management services for pharmacies, clinics and hospitals, supply chain data analytics, product protection, product visibility and more.

Thirty-eight (38%) of the companies selected are women-led and 17% are conducting operations in Francophone Africa.

The selected companies are, in alphabetical order: Afia Group Limited, Aimcare Health, Bena Care, BioCertica, Chari Pharma, CheckUps Medical, Chefaa, Dawa Mkononi, Drugstore Nigeria, Famasi Limited, Field Intelligence, Inc, GICMED, Grinta, Healthtracka, Kapsule, Medical Diagnostech, Medpharma Alliance International Limited, Octosoft Technologies Limited, Pharmarun, Pharmaserv Health Project Nigeria Limited, Reductiona, SASA Health Limited, Tech Care For All Eastern Africa, Technovera – Pelebox Smart Lockers, Tibu Health, UltraTeb, Waspito, WellaHealth, and Welo.

Innovators selected will benefit from the i3’s annual Access to Markets event in Nairobi, which will be held between 14-15 of November.

The event facilitates dynamic partnership dialogues between industry stakeholders, governments, donors, and large multilateral agencies. Connections are made to drive the commercialization and scale of the start-ups through mutually beneficial contracts, pilot projects, and investments.

The first cohort of 31 companies supported by i3 last year forged 24 contracts, pilots, and strategic partnerships to date.

Kieran Daly, Director, Global Health Agencies and Funds at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, commented: “As countries and global health institutions work to expand access to priority products, we face an urgent need to leverage solutions across the public and private sectors to improve health outcomes and strengthen local health systems. Programs like i3 help us understand, support and engage with technology-driven solutions emerging across Africa, hand-in-hand with our partners.”

Yusuf Rasool, Director, Global Market Access, Sustainable Access Solutions at MSD, noted, “We are excited to have a second cohort of 29 innovative changemakers in African healthcare enter the program. Investing in these companies are a means of delivering lifesaving solutions and empowering communities through the access of critical medicines across the continent.”

Jason Dinger, Senior Vice President of Global Products and Solutions at Cencora

“The range of startups selected for the second cohort reflects the breadth of talent and creativity in the

African entrepreneurial landscape, and we look forward to witnessing the transformative impact of their solutions in the years to come.”

Investing in Innovation Africa (i3) is coordinated by Salient Advisory and SCIDaR and is operationalized by leading technology hubs across the continent: CCHub for West Africa, Startupbootcamp AfriTech for Southern Africa, IMPACT Lab for North and French-speaking Africa, and Villgro Africa for East Africa.