The event brought developers, entrepreneurs, and healthcare experts together at The Nest in Yaba, Lagos, which provided the essential collaborative environment and technical resources.

Focused on accelerating digital health adoption across Africa, the hackathon challenged participants to build solutions integrating DrugStoc’s API to address critical issues of healthcare access, affordability, and interoperability.

The week kicked off with technical integration sessions on November 21st, providing teams with the necessary assistance to incorporate the platform into their prototypes.

After days of intense development and mentorship, the event culminated in a Demo Day on November 24th, where ten shortlisted tech founding teams pitched their innovations to a panel of judges.

The winners were announced the following day, November 25th, at the broader AHEAD Africa HealthTech Conference held at the Radisson Blu in Ikeja.

The hackathon winners are:

• First Place: ApexHealthTech
• Second Place: FCMF Group (First Class Muslim Foundation Group)
• Third Place: MedsightAI 

People’s Choice Award: PharmaEco

The winning teams earned rewards of up to ₦10 million. As a follow-up, the top seven participants will receive further mentorship to develop their HealthTech ideas into viable businesses.

The hackathon served as a dynamic launchpad for sustainable solutions, bridging the gap between innovation and real-world implementation.

Its outcomes were showcased at the main AHEAD Africa HealthTech Conference, which convened industry leaders to discuss building equitable and efficient health systems.

Conference panels emphasised critical themes like interoperability, exploring how EMR platforms and other digital tools can seamlessly connect to improve patient care across the continent.

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.

The startup also won the Audience Favorite award.

The finale was hosted on September 19 during TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, CA where this year’s VEI finalists pitched their payment solution to an esteemed panel of judges.

As a vital component of the program, Visa has made its network available to drive inclusive economic growth with the goal of giving everyone, everywhere, access to the global economy.

Notably, minority-owned businesses have tripled after the pandemic, introducing new ideas for the fintech space.

The 2023 VEI program saw a significant uptick in diverse applicants, with women-led businesses representing nearly half of this year’s entrants.

Last year, ThriveAgric, another Nigerian startup that provides smallholder farmers access to finance, insights, and distribution was crowned the 2022 winner of VEI.

VEI is an open innovation program and competition for start-ups and fintech companies, targeted at solving the payment challenges of tomorrow through innovation.

Chibuzo Opara, Co-founder, and CEO of Drugstoc, an innovative startup that leverages technology, supply chain management, financial solutions, and product knowledge to enhance access to health care in emerging markets, was crowned winner of the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (CEMEA) edition of the Visa Everywhere Initiative (VEI) – a global open innovation program and competition for start-ups and fintech companies. 

Having taken the $20,000 USD 1st place prize, Chibuzo Opara will now compete against the other Visa Everywhere Initiative regional champions from North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific at the VEI Global Finals, which will take place on September 19th at TechCrunch’s Disrupt conference in San Francisco.

“Fintechs and payments innovators are shaping the future of how we make payments as consumers and as businesses,” said Otto Williams, Senior Vice President and Head of Product, Partnership and Digital Solutions at Visa CEMEA. We are proud to offer them a platform to showcase their impactful solutions that can uplift the world of payments and commerce. We’ve seen some impressive projects at this year’s competition – congratulations to Chibuzo Opara for winning and to all our participants. We wish Drugstoc the best of luck for the VEI Global Finals.”

This 2023 edition of VEI introduced a new Risk prize, with an expanded remit that includes start-ups offering finance value-adds for merchants and consumers.

• Risk: awarded to Giorgio Patrini of Sensity with a prize of US$25,000. The Fintechs Innovating in Risk Excellence (FIIRE) award was supported by UAE-based bank Emirates NBD Group and was open to CEMEA-based fintech whose product includes a security or risk element that can revolutionize the payments landscape. Beyond a cash prize, the FIIRE winner also an opportunity to work with Emirates NBD Group, one of the Middle East’s largest banking groups in terms of assets.

Also honored at the VEI CEMEA Regional Finals was Nelson Aseka of AIfluence, who took home the Audience Favorite award of $10,000.

In addition to an equity-free cash prize for winning, Chibuzo Opara of Drugstoc will be able to showcase their solution on a global stage with TechCrunch, one of the world’s most influential start-up technology platforms, gaining valuable exposure to key fintech stakeholders across the banking, merchant, VC and government sectors.

Speaking on winning the CEMEA competition, Chibuzo Opara, Co-founder, and CEO Drugstoc said: “The competition has been a great platform to showcase our capabilities, learn, grow, and fuel our aspirations. It’s an overwhelming journey that doesn’t stop here, it only propels us to strive for more and we are looking forward to the global finals in San Francisco. I am proud of the Drugstoc team who keep pushing to make the dream of distributing and enhancing the availability of medical supplies and services a reality. We see the opportunity to collaborate with Visa through its technology, to service the Drugstoc supply chain and bringing efficiency to Sub-Saharan Africa.”

Since its launch in 2015, VEI has helped start-ups from more than 100 countries collectively raise more than US$16 billion in funding, with a growing network of nearly 12,000 start-ups.

Facts about the Visa Everywhere Initiative

• Visa Everywhere Initiative is an open innovation program that helps start-ups unlock new opportunities and gives them a global platform to demonstrate their ground-breaking solutions.
• The program first launched in the US in 2015, and quickly expanded into a global program. To date, nearly 12,000 start-ups have participated, and have collectively raised more than $16 billion in funding so far.
• The Visa Everywhere Initiative is open to all start-ups who offer innovative solutions to the payments and commerce challenges of tomorrow. It also helps support start-ups and fintech in two ways:  As a competition, it gives them a global stage to pitch their solutions to a panel of payments experts, win prizes and gain wider attention in the sector. As a program, it plugs start-ups into our global network of partners.
• This network is accessible to our Visa teams from all over the world when looking for solutions.

It goes without saying that technology has greatly improved accessibility, affordability and the effectiveness of medical services across the globe. This has been made possible by individuals and groups coming together to decentralise products and services across countries and continents. 

Healthtech companies have brought medical services to our doorsteps, solving the issue of distance and ridiculously expensive services. Definitely not limited to these, but the top 10 health startups we are watching this year include CribMD, DrugStoc, mPharma, Chekkit, Field Intelligence, 54gene, LifeBank, BYON8, Ilara Health and Healthtracka.

1. CribMD

Inspired by the need to bring on-demand medical services closer to individuals, Ifeanyi Ossai, Ngiri Michael, and Lorna Mae Johnson founded CribMD. The telemedicine startup provides a pay-as-you-go subscription model to service patients who can also request home services.

With a goal to ensure quality, affordable, and accessible healthcare services, CribMD offers Basic, Pro, and Family plans costing $7.87, $13.11, and $49.84 monthly. 

The startup, which has raised total funding of $2,600,000, was among the five startups enlisted in the Austin-based VC fund and accelerator, 2021 Winter Batch cohort on Sputnik ATX, from which it received $100,000 in investment.

2. DrugStoc

A startup with over 1,500% monthly revenue growth, Chibuzo Opara and Adham Yehia founded DrugStoc to fight the spread of fake and illicit substandard drugs across Nigeria.

The eHealth startup serves as a bridge between drug companies and medical institutions, in Nigeria and has linked over 400 manufacturers to 3,200 doctors, hospitals and pharmacies, ensuring quality pharmaceutical products are delivered across the country.

With its $4,400,000 Series A funding raised in November 2021, the startup set on an expansion plan into 16 Nigerian states and subsequently into other African markets beyond Nigeria.

3. mPharma 

Also on a mission to increase access to quality medications, Ghanaian-based mPharma is providing innovative financing and inventory management solutions to hospitals, pharmacies and patients.

Serving the millions of underserved communities who lack access to affordable medicines, mPharma operates in six African countries, and affirms to have partnered with 155 hospitals, 850 pharmacies and drugstores and has attended to over 2,000,000 patients.

The digital health startup provides analytical data to drug companies as well as health ministries and is building an infrastructure and a drug monitoring system that connects patients, hospitals and pharmacies to cloud-based software. Via its platform, doctors get real-time information about exact locations and availability of medication interest, enabling patients get more reliable access to medicines.

4. Chekkit

Incorporated in Nigeria and the USA, Chekkit is a blockchain technology company that protects users against counterfeited goods and drugs. The company, founded in 2018 by Dare Odumade, Tosin Adelowo and Samuel Ukhueleigbe, asserts to have pharmaceutical products, protected over 200,000 consumers, and expanded its partnership with the Afghan government to verify and track over 200 million products.

Its products include ChekkitApp which enables users to verify the originality of products before purchase, report fake products and win rewards. Chekkit’s second product is Consumer Intelligence, a blockchain-secured anti-counterfeit, consumer engagement and data collection tool for consumer goods and pharmaceutical companies.

The third product is Chekkit USSD which enables users to verify original products by dialling a code that works on all networks and phones.

5. Field Intelligence 

Field Intelligence is focused on bringing simplicity, affordability and effectiveness to the pharmaceutical supply chain. The startup was founded in 2015 to provide services to both large health companies and drug stores, helping them provide better services and thrive well in the sector.

The company’s partners include Unicef, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, McKinsey & Company, Pharmacists Council of Nigeria, Clinton Health Access Initiative, Nigerian Supply Chain Integration Project, among others.

Field Intelligence has over 30,000 locations under management, also manages 2,000+ medical products, more than $1.1 billion product value managed annually and has served 75,000,000+ patients so far.

6. 54gene

Located in Nigeria and the USA, 54gene is a healthtech company that builds on innovation. Bridging the gap in the global genomics market, the startup develops diverse datasets to unlock scientific discoveries to improve diagnostic and treatment outcomes within Africa and the global community.

The healthtech startup, with $44,700,000 total funding raised so far, was launched in 2019. In partnership with US-based biotech company, Illumina, 54gene launched its genetics sequencing and microarray lab in Lagos, in September 2020 and currently has a biobank capacity for 300,000 samples, but targets increasing this in the long term.

7. LifeBank

LifeBank leverages technology and a multi-modal distribution platform to deliver medical supplies to hospitals across Africa, with current operations in Nigeria and Kenya.

Interestingly, LifeBank uses Google Maps Platform to show the routes between blood banks, doctors, and drivers across locations; this has helped reduce delivery time from 24 hours to 45 minutes.

Backed by EchoVC Pan-Africa Fund, CcHub Growth Capital and several other investors, the startup continues to strengthen its focus in the optimisation of its blood supplies given the size, fragmentation and severity of the need. It has over 41 authenticated blood banks on its online platform and is trusted by over 500 hospitals, saving 10,401 lives so far.

8. BYON8 

Kenya’s BYON8 provides free symptom checkups to patients and seamless access to doctors 24/7. The company has partnered with non-profit organisations, ventures, universities and health industry leaders to guarantee great service provision for users.

The company was built on a goal to make high-quality healthcare more accessible, affordable and equal by digitizing healthcare on an individual level. 

One of its products, BYON8 PRO, allows users to interact with a network of quality healthcare professionals with the highest of standards. 

9. Ilara Health

Kenyan healthtech, Ilara Health leverages tech-powered diagnostic devices to save lives by making the service accessible and affordable to over 500,000,000 people who struggle to gain access to even basic medical services such as blood tests.

The company has partnered with over 800 clinics, has five medical labs, administered 100,000+ tests to over 100,000 patients.

In 2020, Ilara Health received a $1,100,000 grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to develop effective antenatal care (ANC) interventions and tech-based solutions for pregnant women unable to access essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic. In December of the same year, the company raised $3,750,000 in Series A funding to further strengthen its goal.

10. Healthtracka

Healthtracka is a fast-growing e-health platform offering home services including health tests with understandable diagnostic test results presented to patients digitally and without time wastage.

The Techstars Toronto-backed startup has laboratory partners who it affirms to be the best private pathology laboratories at the forefront of diagnostic testing in Nigeria, with ISO and MLSCN certifications. 

Included in its home services, the startup provides customers with a wide range of testing options and clinical services, empowering users to take an active role in their health in order to have a longer life span.

Which of the top 10 health startups we are you standing up for?