The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation pan-African Initiative for healthcare start-ups, i3, has decided to support a cohort of 29 selected start-ups with $50,000, and also introduce these start-ups to potential customers, and donor agencies.
The 29 start-ups were selected across 21 countries. They include those building online pharmacies and telemedicine farms, inventory management services for health centres, supply chain data analytics, and product protection and product visibility solutions.
Besides the funds and assistance from the Gates Foundation and its sponsors, namely, Cencora, Merck Sharpe & Dohme, Microsoft, and Chemonics, the start-ups will also receive investment benefits from specific organisations depending on their region. Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) will see to the West Africa start-ups, Startupbootcamp AfriTech for Southern Africa, IMPACT Lab for North and Francophone Africa, and Villgro Africa for East Africa.
This is the second selection of cohorts by the Gates Foundation. The first i3 cohort selection took place in 2022, and was supported by health firm, Salient Advisory, and the Solina Centre for Research and Development (SCIDaR).
Speaking on the first cohort, senior consultant at Salient Advisory, Somto Keluo-Udeke, noted that “from market intelligence, we could see the activity of health tech start-ups in the ecosystem and building on that, we wanted to support them to scale because we believe that data and innovation will power the healthcare supply chain of the future.”
The cohort selection process had one major requirement. The start-ups could either be early-stage or growth-stage, but they had to be founded by Africans to solve problems on the continent to be eligible for selection.
Keluo-Udeke touched more on the process, explaining that “for early-stage start-ups, they have a minimum viable product, are already generating revenue and have a strong plan to scale and sustain growth. For growth stage start-ups, a more well-defined product, revenue model, sales, and operations.”
By supporting such start-ups, the Gates Foundation seeks to help provide better and cheaper healthcare to struggling African countries.
The director of global health agencies and funds at the Gates Foundation, Kieran Daly, stated that “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.”
The 2023 cohort has also prioritised the provision of funds to African women since healthcare centres founded by black women have struggled to raise funds. It targeted 33% women-led companies, but exceeded that target during its selection.
