Investing in Innovation (i3), a pan-African support initiative for African health supply chain startups, has announced its first cohort of 30 companies. 

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and sponsored by Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa, AUDA-NEPAD, and AmerisourceBergen, i3 unites leading donors, industry and African institutions to jump-start a new way of doing business to support African-led innovations in health. 

Selected startups will receive a $50,000 grant and support to catalyse growth-driven partnerships with donors, industry and institutions. 

The 30 companies selected hail from 14 African countries. Operating in early- and growth-stages, the companies are delivering novel solutions for device and medicines distribution, stock management and financing, authentication, traceability, medical waste management and more  – demonstrating that African-built solutions are poised to help transform access to health products in many ways. 

47% of the companies are women-led (which the program defines as having at least one woman with an equity stake and active executive leadership role), and 30% of the companies are operating in Francophone Africa.  

Ann Allen, Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation comments: “Digitally-enabled, locally-led innovations have huge potential to help address the challenges of access to medicines for historically unserved patients in Africa. We are thrilled to see strong women leaders at the helm of many of these start-ups, as we know innovation ecosystems are strengthened by diversity.” 

The selected companies are, in alphabetical order: 

1. Chekkit Technologies
2. Disrupt Pharma Tech Africa (Medsaf)
3. DrugStoc Ehub Limited
4. Erith Health Services
5. Gricd
6. LifeBank
7. Lifestores Healthcare
8. OneHealth
9. ClinicPesa
10. Damu Sasa
11. The Pathology Network
12. Negus Med
13. Signalytic
14. Viebeg Technologies
15. Zuri Health
16. Xetova
17. Cure Bionics
18. DeepEcho
19. Dr Sett
20. Infiuss Health Limited
21. Medevice
22. Meditect
23. Sobrus
24. Valorigo
25. Azanza Health
26. Appy Saude
27. Aviro Health
28. Contro
29. VaxiGlobal
30. Zinacare

Dr Abdullahi Sheriff, Associate Vice President of Global Market Access at MSD noted: “The innovation represented by the startups selected is inspiring. At MSD, we are excited by the opportunity to collaborate with these leading innovators through i3, to help transform health care supply chains and improve access to medicines across Africa.”

i3 is coordinated by Salient Advisory, SCIDaR, and SouthBridge A&I and is operationalized by leading technology hubs across the continent: CCHub for West Africa, Startupbootcamp for Southern Africa, IMPACT Lab for North and French-speaking Africa, and Villgro Africa for East Africa. These hubs are responsible for the selection process and the follow-up of the startups throughout the program.

Efosa Ojomo, Director, Global Prosperity at the Clayton Christensen Institute, and member of the i3 Steering Committee also commented: “i3’s focus on African ingenuity is long overdue – supporting locally-led, market-creating innovations to scale will equip the continent to achieve health gains, generate prosperity and weather future crises.” 

Prashant Yadav, Senior Fellow, Centre for Global Development, and INSEAD Professor who is  Chair of the i3 Steering Committee also commented: “The breadth of innovation represented by the cohort of companies selected is confirming that data-driven innovations can play an important role in rapidly improving the resilience of African health supply chains.”

In partnership with Salient Advisory, SCIDaR, SouthBridge A&I as the coordinating team and CCHub, Startupbootcamp, IMPACT Lab, and Villgro Africa as the implementing partners, the program is designed to scale up  African health tech businesses that bring high-quality health products, including medicines, consumables, medical devices, assistive technologies, among others, bringing them closer to where patients are, at affordable prices.

Inspired by the progress and promise of African innovators in supply chain, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, alongside Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), WHO AFRO, AUDA-NEPAD, and AmerisourceBergen, are launching i3.

Benefits

The consortium of donors, industry actors and African institutions will provide 60 promising early and growth-stage start-ups with risk-tolerant funding and access to market support to power innovators’ health impact and scale.

Pillars of the program

Access to Markets: i3’s flagship event that connects innovators to leading local and international industry players, financial institutions, donors, and governments to establish partnerships and pilot projects that fuel impact and scale.

Risk-Tolerant Finance: i3 provides systematic grants of $50,000 to all participating startups. This flexible funding is provided to address key business model needs and advance the startups’ charitable impacts.

Investment readiness support: i3 provides participating startups with tailored investment readiness support, delivered by leading innovation experts at CCHUB, Startupbootcamp Afritech, IMPACT Lab and Villgro Africa.

Eligibility 

i3 powers companies that bring affordable, high-quality health products closer to where patients are. we’re looking for companies solving supply chain challenges with data-driven solutions that include:

• Health Product Availability
• Accessibility of Health Products
• Health Product Quality
• Health Product Affordability
• Visibility of Health Product Movement
• Waste Management in Health Supply Chains

To be eligible to apply, startups meet the following criteria:

1. Representative of the business must be a founder/co-founder, and at least 18 years old with a valid ID document.

2. Company must be owned, led or operated by an African(s). This is defined as having an African national with long-term control and management of the business, an equity stake and an active role in both strategic and day-to-day decision-making. Organization does not need to be headquartered in Africa.

3. Business must have a legal presence on the African continent.

4. Business offerings must be focused on serving the needs of African customers.

5. Business must be in the early or growth stage as defined below. Nascent/idea-stage companies or mature companies (e.g. mature incumbent distribution businesses) are not eligible.

• Early-stage – You must have clearly defined your market, validated customer demand, developed a working prototype and product map and begun to generate revenue, with a strong plan to scale and sustain growth.
• Growth Stage – You must have a strong, well-defined revenue model, sales, and operational capabilities. Your Products and service must be primed to scale, and customer acquisition costs must be declining. You must have evidence of customer acceptance of your products (reflected in sales volumes, beyond early adopters).

6. Business must be technology-enabled and offer data-driven products or services focused on health product distribution.  Non-health businesses with documented plans to offer data-driven products or services focused on health product distribution in the short-term (2-3 months) will also be considered.

7. Businesses must be able to demonstrate that grant funding will generate direct improvements in one or more of the following areas: availability, accessibility, quality, affordability and visibility of critical health products.

8. Nonprofits, consultancies, intermediaries, and consortiums are not eligible.

9. You must show good management and governance.

The program has a special focus on supporting founders who are traditionally excluded, including women-led companies, and companies operating in Francophone Africa.

How to apply 

Be among the 60 companies to participate in the i3 program for African entrepreneurs creating solutions to the health product distribution challenge on the continent. Apply before the deadline on Sunday, August 14, 2022.