Deadline: 26-Jun-2023

If you are an African entrepreneur creating a solution to a health product distribution challenge in Africa, Investing in Innovation Africa invite you to apply for the 2023 cohort. You stand the chance of receiving a $50,000 grant as well as access to leading donors, industry and institutional players who will support introductions to customers. Up to 30 companies will be selected this round.

Investing in Innovation Africa (i3) is a pan-African initiative for start-ups building the future of healthcare supply chains. Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and sponsored by AmerisourceBergen, Merck Sharpe & Dohme (MSD), Microsoft and Chemonics, i3 is supporting the commercialization of 60 promising early- and growth-stage companies. The program connects African-led supply chain innovators to donors, industry, and government partners, to power start-ups’ growth and impact.

Data-Driven Solutions

I3 powers companies who bring affordable, high-quality health products closer to where patients are. They’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
• Visiblity of health product movement
• Waste management in health supply chains

Benefits

Companies in the i3 cohort will benefit from 3 offerings over a 12-month period:

• Access to Markets
  • I3 connects innovators to leading local and international industry players as well as to financing, donors, and governments – in an attempt to help companies establish partnerships, pilot projects, contracts and investment.
• Risk-Tolerant Finance
  • I3 provides systematic grants of $50,000 to all participating startups for investments in commercialization and impact.
• Investment Readiness Support
  • i3 provides participating startups with tailored investment readiness support, delivered by leading innovation experts at CCHub, Startupbootcamp AfriTech, Villgro Africa and IMPACT Lab.

What do they have to offer to the selected participants?

• 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 markets support to power innovators’ health impact and scale.

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to apply, startups must fulfill the following criteria:

• Representative of the business must be a founder / co-founder, and at least 18 years old with a valid ID document.
• Company must be owned, led, or operated by an African(s). They define this 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 (to note: all three requirements listed must be fulfilled to qualify). Organization does not need to be headquartered in Africa.
• Business must have a legal presence on the African continent.
• Business offerings must be focused serving the needs of African customers.
• 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 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).
• Businesses must be technology-enabled and offer data-driven products or services focused on health product distribution. They will also consider 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).
• 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.
• You must show good management and governance.
• Non-profit organizations, consulting firms, intermediaries and consortia are not eligible.
• The program has a special focus on supporting founders who are traditionally excluded, including women-led companies, and companies operating in Francophone Africa.

For more information, visit Investing in Innovation Africa.