Villgro Africa and partners have announced the awardees of their Artificial Intelligence for Health (AI4H) funding call, with the recipients of grant funding and incubation support including the following companies:
Anchored through the financial support of IDRC and AI4D, multiple partners came together with the aim of uncovering African AI-enabled healthcare solutions and innovations that could be instrumental in catalysing emerging innovation ecosystems towards responsible development of technology while strengthening the capacity of African innovators with regards to scaling their impact and improving health outcomes.
As part of the initiative, beneficiaries will receive funding and participate in an innovation boot camp and an acceleration program. These have been organised to support the selected entrepreneurial AI practitioners to develop innovative and commercially viable products and services.
In 2021, a similar call was launched and the significant learnings from that program have informed the support that will be offered to the current cohort. In the months ahead, each company will go through a needs assessment to understand support areas, followed by an acceleration plan and milestone setting. The execution of the acceleration plan and a series of training sessions from the various partners, each company being assisted by a company manager. There will then be an assessment at the end of the program to evaluate progress.
Rology – “Rology Connect” offers a zero-setup cost, an end-to-end, high-quality, and integrated teleradiology solution to the diagnostic imaging facilities in the MEA region, especially in the underserved healthcare communities and distant geographical areas.
Intixel – A web-based CAD software system for breast cancer detection in screening mammography. The solution seamlessly integrates with the PACS system in hospitals, supply initial diagnosis markups and draft reports to the image data from the imaging modality
Neural Labs Africa – Using Deep Learning and Computer Vision technology to enhance medical images for radiologists and hospitals in real time to identify diseases such as Pneumonia, TB, and lung cancer. By this, the solution empowers doctors to aid accurate diagnoses.
Sophie Bot – Sophie Bot is an artificial intelligence persona to answer users' questions on sexual health. Think of her as "Siri for sexual health". We take great care to feed her with curated verified information from our partner/investor UNFPA Kenya.
Palindrome Data – Predictive/analytic AI models that facilitate triage of HIV patients who need more support and those who need less intensive support. The algorithms do this by identifying characteristics of patients that are likely to cause adverse health outcomes
Wekebere – Using machine learning, the innovation allows for improved healthcare delivery by enhancing early detection of foetal well-being, thus increasing mother and infant safety, preventing maternal and neonatal morbidities, and lowering healthcare costs.
Vectorgram Health – Early diagnosis of breast Cancer using an AI model, Deep Neural Networks trained on augmented Mammography datasets to execute scalable Computer Vision inference accessible anywhere in the world on an online platform
Diagnosoft – Accurate (93%), fast African focused AI powered diagnostic tool that assists radiologists in accurate diagnosis, reducing the turnaround time, automating and streamlining workflow. It’s tested using African data to reduce biasness on the African population
The Pathology Network – Connecting doctors, hospitals and the patients they serve to a global network of pathologists. Leveraging technology to enable doctors to order patient’s tests, tests samples are picked, processing arranged, and the samples distributed to a network of pathologists for reporting.
Saratani AI – A more flexible and user-friendly cervical cancer diagnostic device made using Deep-learning techniques, trained with quite a large cervical PAP smear cytological image with plans of making it offline. The model can be replicated to diagnose other forms of cancer
Villgro Africa is an incubator and impact investor supporting emerging healthcare businesses in Africa, offering emerging companies a personalised incubation experience to help effectively scale ideas and navigate the African startup ecosystem.
The International Development Research Centre (IDRC) champions and funds research and innovation within and alongside developing regions to drive global change.
AI4D Africa’s mission is to improve the quality of life for all in Africa and beyond by partnering with Africa’s science and policy communities to leverage AI through high-quality research, responsible innovation and talent strengthening.
Johnson & Johnson Impact Impact Ventures supports a global portfolio of early-stage companies and partners working to accelerate access to affordable and quality healthcare for all.
NVIDIA has pioneered accelerated computing to tackle challenges no one else can solve. Their work in AI and the metaverse is transforming the world's largest industries and profoundly impacting society.
Africa Oxford Initiative supports the provision of an enabling environment for researchers and students that is conducive for entrepreneurship, innovation and research leadership.
Siemens Healthineers has a portfolio of products, services and solutions that is at the centre of clinical decision-making and treatment pathways. They pioneer breakthroughs in healthcare for everyone, everywhere.
I-DAIR strives to improve access to cutting-edge research on digital health and artificial intelligence for clinical researchers, policymakers and patients worldwide, with particular attention to the Global South.
Women at the Table breaks down barriers to systems change so that women and girls are able to fully and actively participate and influence the world’s social, political and economic spheres.