Africa’s development challenges can be sustainably overcome through success in the private sector: for-profit, innovative products and business models that are demand-driven and scalable. These enterprises deliver social impact by creating jobs for Africa’s rural and urban poor or by meeting their needs as the target market. The missing link in enabling these innovative businesses to thrive is a compelling business case that leads to funding and scaling.
With this in mind, Villgro Africa and ICChange have signed an MOU to collaborate on scaling enterprises and initiatives that positively impact health outcomes in Africa. The aim of this partnership is to leverage the experience and inherent expertise within each organization so that both can increase their respective reach and impact. This will include:
ICChange has a cross-sectoral, global talent pool and will provide access to this network as necessary, specifically in areas where clear value addition is evident. They can also facilitate linkages to health practitioners who have direct interest and expertise that can increase the success of portfolio companies. Because they are based in Canada, they will also engage Canadian research hubs and/or “Innovation or Living Labs” with a specific focus on collaborating with peers based in the Global South. Translational research will be a key area of focus.
Villgro Africa will offer its business incubation and technology commercialization services for eligible technologies with public health impact arising from ICChange’s activities and pipeline. They will also collaborate and strengthen existing capacity and specialized skills in their areas of expertise, including market and end-user informed product design, intellectual property, manufacturing and distribution, policy and regulatory compliance, within ICChange to promote “home-grown” innovations in health and life sciences. They will also provide technical assistance to eligible ICChange innovators that will enable them set up legal trading entities, develop business models and raise funds that would enable the companies to scale up.
Villgro Africa and Bobab are pleased to announce that the two organizations have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
The strategic partnership establishes areas of collaboration focused around achieving their shared mission: To accelerate science and technology on the continent; spotlighting, promoting, and supporting innovative Africa-focused individuals and enterprises.
Villgro Africa is a Kenyan-based business incubator and investor working to inspire a new generation of innovative thinking to help solve Africa’s toughest challenges. Bobab is a streaming and networking platform dedicated to connecting science, tech and business professionals, designing and hosting innovative online events and making it easy for a diverse community of experts to connect and collaborate.
African countries currently face a variety of challenges and opportunities. Both Villgro Africa and Bobab recognise the urgent need to create and grow digital ecosystems to support entrepreneurs and innovators. This is all in a bid to address and capitalise on them respectively, as well as the fundamental importance of science and technology in providing the solutions.
Leveraging Villgro Africa’s expertise in supporting scalable and sustainable businesses and combining it with Bobab’s rapidly growing online community of experts, the two organisations will help identify challenges and explore opportunities, working together to find and support the next generation of African innovators.
Villgro Africa has awarded Damu Sasa, an innovative end-to-end blood service information management system, $20,000 for their contributions to mitigating the spread of COVID-19.
Damu Sasa works across the entire eco-system by mobilizing donors, tracking their donations through screening and manufacturing of products to transfusions. Their system increases voluntary donations from across the population, delivers a sufficient supply of safe blood, improves tracking and reporting of utilization countrywide.
The team has grown from 1 hospital in 1 city to 53 hospitals in 9 counties in 2020. They have facilitated over 9,000 transfusions and have over 70,000 registered donors on their platform.
During COVID-19 the Damu Sasa team has provided online booking for blood donation appointments, personalized booking links for each hospital, evidence-based educational articles, blood screening for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies, and mobile text reminders of safe practices.
Villgro Africa will offer technical assistance alongside the grant. We believe their ecosystem-level visibility/real-time monitoring up to transfusing facilities generates data needed for better planning and management of blood at an ecosystem level, thus increasing blood availability.
Damu Sasa improves efficiency and reduces waste at the facility level and leads to lives saved and improved health outcomes.
Villgro Africa has joined the list of investors who have partnered with startup-focused news and research company Disrupt Africa in a bid to make their annual funding report available to all in January 2021. Other investors who are on board to launch the open-source initiative include Catalyst Fund, Quona Capital, 4Di Capital, Otundi Ventures and Lateral Capital
Since 2016, Disrupt Africa’s “African Tech Startups Funding Report” has tracked the growth in investment coming into the tech space, and analyzed various trends across nations and verticals.
The report has tracked the extraordinary progress made by the continent’s startup ecosystems from an investment perspective since, with the amount of total funding having increased by more than 160 percent and the number of startups raising that funding growing by almost 150 percent over those five years.
Aside from providing a full list of the funded startups, who invested in them, and, where possible, the amount raised, from the previous year, the annual reports also provide deep-dives into investment trends within key startup geographies and verticals, as well as data on African startup acquisitions.
Previously available for sale, the report has been purchased each year by leading tech companies from Africa and the rest of the world, Big Four consulting firms, banking and fintech leaders, venture capital firms, supranational investors, and international trade bodies. In January 2021, however, Disrupt Africa will make the next edition open source for the first time, to make it accessible to those for whom the information is most valuable – African entrepreneurs.
“Our flagship funding report, which was the first of its kind when the inaugural edition was released in January 2016, has become an industry benchmark. We are proud of the customer base we have built, which is hundreds-strong and includes the great and the good of the global tech, innovation and investment industry. But Disrupt Africa’s core remit is to empower African entrepreneurs through access to information, and this was not happening under the previous model,” said Tom Jackson, co-founder of Disrupt Africa.
Speaking on the partnership, Villgro Africa CEO and Co-founder, Mr. Wilfred Njagi said, “Any startup enabler or ecosystem actor is as strong as the entrepreneurial ecosystem they operate in. Villgro Africa has partnered with Disrupt Africa because we are passionate about the democratization of transactions happening across the continent which will then lead to better deal flow and even more vibrant ecosystems, especially in geographies that have been under-represented over the years. As Villgro scales its model across Africa, these investment insights and analytics will come in handy,”
Making the report open source will open up more opportunities for investors and more importantly entrepreneurs, this will in turn help improve the quality of the pipeline and lead to better deal flow. It will also increase our ability to identify a successful range of compelling entrepreneurs to address some of the social-economical challenges in Africa.
Villgro Africa is now a member of Afrilabs, a pan-African network organisation of 240 Innovation centers across 48 African countries.
Afrilabs opens for VIllgro Africa the doors to the continent as we scale to serve more innovative enterprises in Africa. The potential for partnerships with Enterprise Support Organizations has been amplified as we will have access to over 200 innovation centers at our disposal.
“Villgro Africa is excited to join AfriLabs. This announcement comes at a time that we are gearing for a Pan-African expansion. Part of Villgro Africa’s expansion strategy will be through joint incubation programs with other incubators and Enterprise Support Organizations (ESOs) across the continent. As we venture into new geographies we couldn’t think of a better network than AfriLabs” – Wilfred Njagi, CEO Villgro Africa
Kenechukwu Chukwu, Member Services Coordinator further emphasized AfriLabs’ commitment to supporting innovation hubs.
“AfriLabs is committed to giving African Technology and Innovation Hubs opportunities to collaborate with themselves and have access to funding and capacity-building resources. With the admission of these 15 hubs, AfriLabs has expanded into a new country and we promise to continue to support our members and other stakeholders in the African Innovation Ecosystem.”