Healthcare-focused incubator and investor Villgro Africa is looking for female founders leading innovative health startups across the continent, with the aim of providing venture support to help them scale.
The India-based Villgro Innovations Foundation expanded to Africa in 2017 with the launch of Villgro Kenya, an early-stage business incubator and impact investor that offers mentoring, funding and access to networks to startups in the healthcare and life sciences sector in East Africa.
It rebranded as Villgro Africa in 2020, and expanded across the continent, and has so far supported dozens of enterprises with seed funding totalling over US$1 million.
African female founders with health solutions that offer potential for widespread impact on society, that are looking for a supportive environment for developing their solutions and support in honing their skills for seamless navigation of the startup world, have been invited to register for an information session on how Villgro can help.
The opportunity is open to solutions that demonstrate strong potential for significant improvement in healthcare equity and access in all areas relevant to Africa’s health needs. Any type of technology leading to the creation of solutions towards disease prevention, diagnosis, management and treatment is eligible.
Selected ventures will benefit from access to support networks, mentorship and guidance, technical expertise, sponsorship, and funding opportunities.
“Our experience has underscored noticeable gender imbalance in the healthcare innovation space and the undesirable impact of limited diversity in innovation on equitable healthcare,” the organisation said.
“Female founders encounter numerous pain points, from limited startup support programmes that are sensitive to the natural ways in which women flourish in connecting, collaborating, and engaging in the start-up space, to support from family and friends and biased assessment approaches in pitching for funding across the entire funding spectrum – pre-seed and beyond.”
In response, Villgro Africa said it was working to co-create opportunities and structures dedicated to supporting women innovators to thrive rather than survive in building their startups.
“This call is part of our efforts to increase the participation of female founders across the continent. By offering support throughout the application process and sharing information on it, we aim to empower female founders to take advantage of opportunities in the healthcare innovation space,” Villgro said. “This call is part of our efforts to increase the participation of female founders across the continent. By offering support throughout the application process and sharing information on it, we aim to offer female founders approaches that are sensitive to their immutable role in creating impactful solutions in the healthcare innovation space.”
