Southbridge A&I, Salient Advisory and SCIDaR have partnered to launch i3, a US$7 million programme that will provide 30 African e-health startups with funding and support each year.
Sponsored by the Gates Foundation, the pan-African “Investing in Innovation” programme will provide 30 African e-health startups per year with access to a systematic grant of US$50,000, market and government access events across the continent, and connections to a high-level global ecosystem in the healthcare community.
Almost a year ago, the Moroccan consulting firm Southbridge A&I and its Canadian partner Salient Advisory published a joint report on the financing challenges of e-health delivery companies in Africa. They proposed two continental mechanisms to better direct international funding to African startups and to provide pooled working capital solutions in Africa. The i3 programme implements the first recommendation of this report.
The US$7 million pan-African programme is designed to support 30 companies per year over two years specialising in e-health and supply chain in Africa. i3 aims to identify early-stage or growth-stage innovators across the continent that can make a tangible impact on public health, whether in terms of availability, accessibility, quality or transparency of health supply chains.
These companies, selected by four leading accelerators across the continent, will be eligible for a systematic grant of US$50,000 as well as a market access program through events organised across the continent. The accelerators are Startupbootcamp AfriTech in South Africa for Southern Africa, Villgro Africa in Kenya for East Africa, Co-Creation Hub (CcHub) in Nigeria for West Africa, and IMPACT Lab in Morocco for North Africa.
Applications for the first cohort of 30 companies are open here and will close on August 14.
