Investing in Innovation program commits to bolstering Africa’s e-health systems

The pan-African “Investing in Innovation” i3 program, supported by the Gates Foundation, is giving 30 African e-health startups each year, access to a regular grant of $50,000 USD, market and federal government access events across the region, and connections to a top-tier global ecosystem in the healthcare industry.

With its maiden edition cohort this year, 30 start-ups working to improve African healthcare supply chains have been selected and will receive $50,000 grants and targeted access to market support.

“The 30 companies were selected from 14 African countries and operate across both early and start-up growth stages. Nearly 50 percent of these start-ups are women-led, and 30 percent of them operate in Francophone Africa,” Salient Advisory, a coordination team partner for the Investing in Innovation (i3) program wrote on its LinkedIn page.

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Telemedicine, a concept that seems to have now been propelled by the covid-19 catalyst, is not a novel concept in Africa.

Africa’s top health supply chain innovators that were selected include: Dr Sett, a biomedical waste manager through the supply of regulation-compliant packaging for waste collection.

Sobrus, which leverages cloud-based solutions to connect pharmacies to wholesalers and laboratories through a digital marketplace.

Medevice, a start-up that has developed three medical devices that support and improve diagnostic services, Deepecho, Meditect, Cure Bionics, Valorigo, Infiuss Health, Aviro Health, amongst others.