Neopenda, an organization based in Uganda that is pioneering healthtech in emerging markets, has just completed Villgro Africa’s one-year incubation program. Following this experience, Sona Shah, Neopenda’s CEO and co-founder, expressed that Villgro Africa was absolutely instrumental in their progress over the past year. They started engaging Villgro Africa at the very beginning of COVID-19, when no one was sure how long the crisis would last or what the impact would be. Villgro Africa took the global context into account in their support, understanding that things were more strained than normal due to the pandemic and helping Neopenda prioritize the most important tasks. Shah stated that Villgro Africa met them where they were and helped Neopenda address their current needs.
This has been a pivotal year for Neopenda. They transitioned from the heavy R&D phase to a commercial launch. With support from Villgro Africa, they were able to secure their first contract, which led to their first revenue, and they are now starting to scale to new countries. As they progressed through these levels of growth, Villgro Africa was there to advise on how to handle each transition.
The Neopenda team also faced many challenges. Certain aspects of rolling out their device, like importing, have taken them longer than expected. Supply chain manufacturing, shipping, and logistics have all been affected by COVID-19 and they were forced to think differently and creatively to overcome the obstacles.
Although the funding from Villgro Africa was incredibly helpful to get Neopenda where they are today, Shah stated that the strategic advice received on a bi-weekly basis from mentors was pivotal. It meant that their team knew they could consistently rely on their mentors to help them through any complex challenges that came up. It was comforting and reassuring to know that at the end of each week, no matter what was going on, they would have the chance to process and discuss it with their mentor. Although they had access to a broad range of mentors through the incubation program, it was helpful to have a small group with whom they met regularly. They didn’t have to spend time explaining themselves or their device, but were able to get down to business and discuss strategy.
After their exciting year of growth and expansion, Neopenda is ready to scale and are looking for partners to help get them there. Expanding to other countries cannot be done alone. From funding, mentoring, and regulation compliance, partnerships are needed to support implementation. Shah concluded by saying, “This is a journey that requires support from other people and we want to support others too. Let’s find a way to work together.”
Villgro Africa Incubatees The Pathology Network and Medixus were selected for the Deal Share Live – Early Stage Healthcare Demo Day organized by Africa Venture Philanthropy Alliance and Innovest Advisory. The two companies were among 6 innovators who pitched to investors within the health sector and were able to make connections with investors following their presentations.
African Venture Philanthropy Alliance (AVPA) is a Pan-African network that seeks to drive a transformative social investing agenda in the continent.Throughout 2021, AVPA will be hosting a series of virtual Deal Share Live sessions, during which enterprises featured on our Deal Share Platform can pitch to investors active in their sector. Through our incubation model which focuses on de risking innovative early stage enterprises we are optimistic that more companies from our portfolio will be selected.
Villgro Africa looks forward to working closely with organizations like AVPA in our expansion efforts to reach more partners across the continent.
Villgro Africa is excited to have been featured in the latest edition of Startup Guide, a publishing and media company that produces guidebooks and online content to help entrepreneurs navigate and connect with different startup scenes across the world.
Startup Guide Nairobi offers comprehensive profiles of entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, co-working spaces and key ecosystem players. The book gives the reader a front seat to the vibrant startup ecosystem that is the silicon savanna of Africa.
Entrepreneurs looking to set up shop in the city have at their disposal all the information they need from regulations and key contacts in the startup scene. Founders also have their voice and their segment offers valuable insights and advice for entrepreneurs looking to understand how to hack the Kenyan market.
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Female led portfolio companies Neopenda and Rescue by Flare emerged as finalists of the TechEmerge Health East Africa Challenge.
They are among 17 innovative health tech startups from 11 countries successfully matched with 11 leading healthcare providers across Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda to jointly implement 20 pilot projects and build long-term partnerships.
Selected innovators receive funding and guidance from the TechEmerge team to pilot their tech solutions in the East African market, with the ultimate goal of wider commercial deployment of the technologies.
IFC will provide support during the market-entry and tech transfer process for both innovators and healthcare providers – mitigating financial and operational risks associated with market entry for innovators and reducing adoption risks for local healthcare providers.
Villgro Africa has awarded $20,000 to Damu Sasa System Limited (DSL), which runs an innovative end-to-end blood services information management platform (Damu-Sasa), to enable them to enhance their contributions to mitigating the spread of COVID-19.
Damu-Sasa works across the entire blood ecosystem by helping hospitals source blood from donors and from each other while also supporting screening, preparation of blood products and inventory and transfusions management. The Damu-Sasa system also helps mobilize donors, tracks their donations while giving them digital access to their donation history. The DSL team works with hospitals and other multi-sectoral partners to increase voluntary donations from across the population, with the goal of delivering sufficient supply of safe blood while improving tracking and reporting of utilization countrywide.
During 2020, Damu-Sasa has grown in presence from one hospital in one city to 132 hospitals across the country. The system has facilitated over 9,000 transfusions and has over 72,000 registered donors on their platform. The DSL team looks to significantly grow this number through increasing Damu-Sasa presence in healthcare facilities as well as through their newly launched Damu Sasa android app, currently available on Google Playstore.
During COVID-19 the DSL team has provided online booking for blood donation appointments, personalized booking links for each hospital, evidence based educational articles, blood screening tracking capacity for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and mobile text reminders of safe practices to blood donors.
“Villgro Africa is thrilled to support the work of the DSL team, they are a young and vibrant company who are committed to solving this real challenge. Working alongside Innovative Canadians for Change (ICChange), we look forward to being a part of their efforts in managing safe and efficient blood donations in Kenya, and doing so using a sustainable model.” says Rob Beyer, Cofounder & Executive Chair of Villgro Africa
In addition to the grant, Villgro Africa will offer technical assistance to enable the team to enhance their capacity with respect to COVID-19 blood management related capabilities while also supporting ongoing fundraising efforts.
According to Dr. Matunda Nyanchama, Chairman of DSL, “At Damu-Sasa, we are really excited with this partnership because it will help us address key concerns occasioned by the pandemic, improve potential blood donor numbers and hence help alleviate, to the degree possible, the perennial blood shortages.”
The Damu Sasa system enhances efficiency and effectiveness of the blood ecosystem, helps minimize waste and enhances blood availability, thereby leading to lives saved and improved health outcomes.