NAIROBI, Kenya Thursday, 29th October 2020
VILLGRO AFRICA PIONEERING SOCIAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN HEALTHCARE AND LIFE SCIENCES
Villgro Africa, an impact investor that inspires, nurtures, and scales innovation by offering customized technical assistance and investments to early-stage social entrepreneurs in Africa today celebrated its 5th anniversary as they go beyond their boundaries to serve the rest of Africa.
In the last five years since inception, through the social enterprises they support, Villgro Africa has enabled access to healthcare to those at the bottom of the pyramid. They have successfully supported 21 enterprises, provided Seed funding of $ 1 million which has enabled the enterprises to generate revenues of $2.2 million, touching 2 million lives.
According to Villgro’s co-founder, Dr. Robert Karanja “Africa’s lion economies, though among the fastest growing economies in the world are not lifting the masses out of poverty. It is estimated that by 2023, Africa’s share of the world’s poverty-stricken will rise from 60% in 2016 to over 80%. It is therefore important for governments and development actors to understand how we can “spring” the poverty-disease trap and reverse this social dynamic. Eleven percent of Africans’ experience catastrophic spending for health care every year, while as many as 38 percent delays or forgo health care due to high costs
As part of the fight against the Covid19 pandemic, Villgro funded 11 innovative startups that have made significant contributions to Kenya’s health system resilience. One of these companies, Rescue (a Villgro Kenya grantee), joined hands with Bolt, the Ministry of Health, University of Nairobi, AMREF, Nairobi County, and several other partners to deploy the “Wheels For Life” initiative to help pregnant mothers quickly seek help and access free emergency transport to hospitals, especially during dusk to dawn curfew hours.
There are partners who have supported Villgro’s journey “We invest in local partners like Villgro to support the ecosystem believing that invention-based, small and growing business can fill the gap by advancing locally developed solutions to health, agricultural and environmental., says Carol Dahl, Executive Director, the Lemelson Foundation.
We value our partnership with Villgro because we have been impressed by Villgro’s ability to identify a successful range of compelling entrepreneurs to address some of the social-economical challenges and build a highly effective incubator for healthcare-related businesses, says Nicholas Colloff, Director, Argidius Foundation.
Villgro is now boldly scaling into Africa, according to Mr. Wilfred Njagi, CEO and Co-Founder of Villgro, “As we look into the future, the tailwinds are now on our side to scale our impact across the African continent. In the next 5 years, we will be scaling deep, scaling wide, and scaling equitably. Part of scaling broad will be taking on a bold initiative to collaborate with local and regional hubs in joint incubation initiatives while scaling wide will be deepening the level of support offered to enterprises. Nicholas Collof, Director Argidius Foundation adds that
While most of Villgro’s strength has been in increasing equitable access to health care especially to the most vulnerable groups, Villgro is not only going beyond geographical boundaries but will also venture to other sectors and partnerships in supporting innovations and entrepreneurs in areas such as food security and water sanitation in line with SDG 2 and SDG 6.
For more information please contact
Ordia Akelo – Communications Lead Villgro Africa – [email protected]
Mary Gitari – Brandspark PR – [email protected] 0722224972
Ilara Health, a health tech enterprise that provides point of care diagnostic testing to small primary care clinics in Kenya, has received a $1.1 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
The grant will be used to improve maternal health outcomes in Keny by developing effective antenatal care (ANC) interventions and tech-based solutions for pregnant women unable to access essential services during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ilara Health, together with the Kisumu Ministry of Health and the Kenya Medical Research Institute, will leverage a network of local primary care facilities, telemedicine, and home-based health worker consultations to ensure safe continuity of life-saving maternal care during the pandemic and beyond.
Awarded in September, the grant is expected to reach approximately 4,000 low-income pregnant women in peri-urban Kisumu county and will address a significant drop in ANC attendance at large health facilities as concerns for possible COVID-19 transmission grow in these hotspots.
Ilara Health and its partners will work to ensure essential ANC is available at small local clinics. The project aims to improve access to diagnostics locally and, through Ilara Health’s technology platform and diagnostic tools, the team will reach pregnant women at their local clinics, individual homes, or remotely – collectively providing safe, COVID-free, high-quality care to both mother and baby.
Additionally, through its partnership with Butterfly Network, the company behind the telemedicine-enabled Butterfly iQ, a separate set of small facilities without in-house sonographers will be linked to imaging specialists so scans that are carried out locally can be read and diagnosed remotely in real time, so patients receive immediate feedback. If successful, this feature will be rolled out across the larger project to improve the availability of ultrasounds across peri-urban areas. The project also aims to drive community awareness on the importance of ANC services and ANC attendance in improving maternal and neonatal health outcomes for longer-term improvement in care.
“We are incredibly excited to receive support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to improve Kenya’s maternal health outcomes and promote Ilara Health’s core mission of improving access to diagnostics countrywide. This grant underscores the acute need for the continuation of essential ANC services during the COVID-19 pandemic; we hope to see a great reduction in poor maternal and neonatal health outcomes through its implementation in these low-resource peri-urban areas,” said Emilian Popa, chief executive officer (CEO) and co-founder of Ilara Health.
Wekebere Limited, a Ugandan based e-health startup developing a remote fetal monitor is among eleven startups that have been selected to join the first Artificial Intelligence Accelerator Program in Ghana.
The selected participants will receive business training and capacity development required towards building highly scalable AI businesses out of their innovative solutions. The AI focussed accelerator program is run by Ghana Tech Lab in partnership with Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and IBM
Earlier this year Villgro Kenya awarded the team a $20, 000 grant with technical assistance for their hardware based innovation which incorporates data analytics to increase access to care, provide personalized feedback to mothers, and help doctors earlier predict and manage pregnancy complications in low resource settings.
The makers of the affordable fetal monitor aim to reduce fetal and maternal mortality in Uganda and Sub- Saharan Africa. According to data from UNICEF, Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest maternal mortality ratio with over two thirds of all maternal deaths yearly worldwide. The device currently monitors fetal heart rate, fetal movement and contractions.
Following a successful call for applications, Villgro Kenya is excited to announce its new pool of mentors, drawn from across the world. The mentors come from a range of sectors, each with strong expertise in their various fields. Villgro Kenya will work closely with them to ensure they are well equipped to leverage their knowledge, expertise and networks to guide the companies in our portfolio.
The selected mentors include:
At Villgro Kenya, we are aware of the difference a mentor can make in a startup’s journey to scale. They are instrumental in helping new ventures make fewer mistakes and overcome the common obstacles faced by companies in the early stages.
The CEO of MamaOpe, Olivia Koburongo, testifies to this fact. Arun Venaketsan, the CEO and co-founder of Villgro USA, has been their mentor for the past 4 months. With his guidance, as well as the connections he has made on their behalf, they have been able to move faster in their product development of a pneumonia screening device for neonates.
“Our mentor, Arun, has helped with streamlining our scope, he has connected us to a design consultancy firm in India and continues to guide us on what to look out for in a vendor. This has helped our progress to scale tremendously,” Ms. Koburongo shared with Villgro.
A mentor-based approach ensures that ventures are able to scale their innovations fast, creating impact in their communities through an active network of experts who can ultimately become investors. The current group of mentors will help advance Villgro Kenya’s goal of creating a vibrant startup ecosystem with the aim of supporting early stage entrepreneurs.
Villgro Kenya, a health investor and business incubator for innovative, early-stage health enterprises, is looking for healthcare entrepreneurs, professionals, and experts, both active and retired, with considerable healthcare-business experience to guide, advise and support health innovations and startups currently under Villgro Kenya’s Incubation Program.
Mentoring has become an essential factor in entrepreneurial success, helping entrepreneurs overcome setbacks they commonly face in the early stages of their ventures. With the growth of a vibrant innovation ecosystem in Africa, opportunities abound for aspiring and existing mentors to support budding entrepreneurs to accelerate their progress.
Mentors joining the Villgro Kenya family will have the opportunity to work alongside dynamic innovators working in the following sectors:
As a mentor you will:
In turn, you will:
Mentorship is a tangible way to contribute to the creation and success of new companies while taking an active role in supporting an entrepreneur’s effort. To find out how you can become a mentor with Villgro Kenya, contact Rob Beyer at [email protected].