Today, that conviction has grown into a movement, one that has channeled over $20 million in catalytic funding into the hands of bold innovators transforming access to healthcare across the continent.

Back in 2020, Salient wasn’t just launching a consultancy it was stepping into a critical gap. Across Africa, promising healthtech entrepreneurs were building tools to solve local challenges, but struggling to access the capital, visibility, and support systems they needed to scale.

Salient’s founder, Mara Hansen Staples, and her team saw an opportunity to bridge that divide between vision and validation, between innovation and impact.

Building Bridges, Fueling Solutions

From Lagos to Nairobi, from Figorr’s smart cold chain tech to Zuri Health’s telemedicine services, Salient has stood shoulder to shoulder with innovators building the future of African healthcare.

Its work didn’t stop at startups. Over the years, Salient partnered with governments like Nigeria’s Presidential Value Chain Initiative and Lagos State, with global players like MSD, Cencora, The Gates Foundation, and with international NGOs, pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in health system transformation.

At the heart of this journey was a game-changing program: Investing in Innovation (i3). Launched in 2022, i3 wasn’t just about writing checks.

It reimagined what support for African healthtech should look like risk-tolerant, grant-based, and deeply collaborative.

In 2023 alone, i3 provided 38% of all grant funding to healthtech startups across Africa, helping them prove their models, attract more investment, and ultimately, save more lives.

Five Years of Impact – By the Numbers:

• Tracked 1,000+ health-focused African innovators
• Catalyzed $20M+ in funding and revenue to local enterprises
• Supported 65+ startups and 15 governments and regulators
• Facilitated 630+ connections between startups and customers
• Published 26 market-shaping reports, read by tens of thousands globally

A Founder’s Reflection

“We founded Salient because we saw a gap,” says Mara Hansen Staples, reflecting on the journey. “There was so much promise in African health innovation, but too little support to scale it. Five years later, that gap is narrowing, thanks to the courage of local entrepreneurs and the growing global appetite for sustainable, tech-enabled, community-rooted care. We’re proud to have played a role, and we’re just getting started.”

Looking Ahead: Scaling Systems, Deepening Impact

As Salient steps into its next chapter, it is doubling down on its core values: proximity, partnership, and purpose. The focus is now on:

• Strengthening its advisory work with governments, manufacturers, and health systems to improve policy, regulation, and digital health adoption.
• Expanding its Access to Markets platform, bringing together innovators, insurers, provider systems, investors, and regulators to accelerate meaningful collaborations.
• Shining a global spotlight on the power of African innovation through insights, storytelling, and shared learning.

But Salient also knows the work is far from over. The organization is sending out a clear call to action:

“If we want resilient, equitable health systems in Africa, we must invest in the people building them. Governments, donors, development partners, we all have a role. The time to scale African-led innovation is now.”

The Road Ahead

Salient’s journey from a bold idea to a trusted partner has redefined what it means to support innovation in African healthcare.

As it marks five years of impact, it’s not resting, it’s recommitting. Because transforming healthcare takes more than good ideas. It takes investment, partnership, and a deep belief that local solutions can change the world.

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.

Some key data from the Nigeria health tech space are below:

Spurred by these findings, a consortium of global and continental organizations, with funding from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has announced the launch of a pan-African initiative to support companies’ impact, access to markets and commercialization.

Salient’s report, titled ‘Innovations in Digitising Distribution of Health Products’, highlights more than 80 healthtech innovators in Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, and Nigeria. Tech-enabled approaches to digitizing medicine distribution to underserved pharmacies, drug shops, clinics and hospitals, pioneered by companies such as Lifestores, Maisha Meds and Shelf Life, recorded rapid growth in the past year, mirroring trends seen in B2B e-commerce on the African continent. Innovators are also demonstrating an increasing interest in powering rural supply chains, improving availability of medicines, and bolstering resilience of supply chain operations.

Investor interest has also been strong; 36% of all-time funding reported by health care supply chain innovators profiled was raised in the last 12 months. However, exclusionary funding trends remain entrenched: only 2% of recent funding was raised by Black, women founders, a total of just $1.6 million in 2021.

Inspired by the progress and potential of African innovators in supply chain, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, alongside Merck Sharp & Dohme (MSD), the World Health Organisation Regional Office for Africa, AUDA-NEPAD and AmerisourceBergen, are launching a $7 million pan-African initiative to provide 60 promising early and growth-stage companies with risk-tolerant grants alongside commercialization support to power their impact at scale. The program, called Investing in Innovation (i3), is coordinated by Salient Advisory, SCIDaR, and SouthBridge A&I and is operationalized with CCHub, Startupbootcamp, IMPACT Lab, and Villgro Africa. Applications for the first cohort of 30 companies are open now here.

Applications will close in mid August.

Cheikh Oumar Seydi, Director, Africa, at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, commented:

“African health innovators have shown increasing capacity to leverage technology to optimize supply chains and advance access to medicines. Such local innovations have the potential to change how supply chains and health systems function – and it is time to support them. We are pleased to be collaborating with strong global and continental partners to jointly strengthen African health systems, and accelerate progress towards universal health coverage.” 

Dr Abdullahi Sheriff, AVP, Global Market Access, Sustainable Access Solutions at MSD also commented: 

“There has been considerable progress in tech-driven innovation in health product distribution across Africa. Spurring and scaling disruptive innovation in health supply chain is key to expanding access to medicines for all. That’s why we, at MSD, are excited to collaborate on the i3 program.” 

Dr Janet Byaruhanga, Senior Programme Officer – Health at AUDA-NEPAD also commented:

“The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the capacity of African innovators to leverage tech-enabled solutions to transform medicine distribution. AUDA-NEPAD will continue to leverage its mandate and comparative advantage to foster partnerships that strengthen evidence, deploy innovation, enhance policy environments and facilitate critical investments, while creating valuable and high-impact jobs across the continent.”

Speaking on the launch of the report and i3 program, Remi Adeseun, Director of Salient Advisory, said: 

“There has been considerable progress over the past year as supply chain innovations work to enhance access to quality medicines. Our report provides investors, donors, and governments with actionable recommendations on engagement strategies to advance companies’ growth and impact. With funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and along with our esteemed partners, we are excited to be launching the Investing in Innovation program to connect promising companies to customers who can power their impact and scale.”

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