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09Sep

Call for Applications: Bioscience Innovation Bootcamp

September 9, 2020 Ordia Event 19

BioInnovate Africa is a regional science and innovation-driven initiative, supported by Sida and implemented as a programme of the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe). It operates in Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda. We also collaborate with partners in South Sudan.

BioInnovate Africa enables scientists in Eastern Africa to develop and translate innovative bioscience research ideas, technologies and inventions into practical uses in society, which promote economic growth, create jobs, and reduce poverty. Thus, BioInnovate Africa fosters the development of a sustainable bioeconomy in the region by strengthening the capacity of scientists and institutions to link innovative ideas from the bench to business.

As part of the initiative, a 5-day bioscience innovation bootcamp has been organized for entrepreneurial scientists in eastern Africa to empower them to develop innovative and commercially viable biological-based ideas in areas including but not limited to;

  • Agroecology
  • Food and feed
  • Waste water treatment
  • Biopharmaceutical
  • Bioenergy
  • Biomaterials
  • Medical diagnostics
  • Green chemicals

Who is eligible to apply?

This call shall be limited to citizens and/or nationals of the seven (7) BioInnovate Africa participating countries attached to a university, research institution, private company, or other related organization (either as an employee or student).

How you will benefit

  • Access to Investors – Networking with investors & industry players at the 1st Regional Bioeconomy Conference.
  • Investment Readiness –Winners of the pitch event will get admission to a 3 months acceleration program by Villgro Kenya & BioInnovate Africa.
  • Fundraising – Increase your chances of being eligible for future BioInnovate Africa & Villgro Kenya funding and technical assistance.

Selection criteria

  • An innovative biobased idea with potential for commercial application (40 points)
  • A multidisciplinary team of three (3) members e.g. comprising of academia and industry/private sector (30 points).
  • At least 2 of the team members must be youth, i.e. within the age bracket of 15-35 years (10 points)
  • Technical proof of concept will be preferred over unproven ideas (20 points).

How to apply

Applicants are invited to submit the following as part of their application:

  • A support letter/email from your institution of affiliation (signed by e.g. the head of the department)
  • CVs of team members
  • A one-page personal motivation statement by the team leader
  • A PowerPoint application uploaded in this format using these guidelines

All applications will be uploaded through the online portal

Application deadline

The deadline for receiving applications is 5th October 2020 at 23:59hrs Nairobi Time. Late submissions will be disqualified.

Next Steps

Successful teams will be notified through email by 9th October 2020 Selected teams are expected to participate in the bootcamp for five days on 17-21 October 2020.

The teams will pitch their innovative ideas during the 1st Regional Bioeconomy Conference to be held on 22 October 2020.

For more information about the call, please contact:
Villgro Kenya
Email: ordia@villgrokenya.or.ke
and
BioInnovate Africa Programme Management Office (PMO)
Email: bioinnovate@icipe.org

 Download the Bioscience Innovation Bootcamp Call for Applications

 

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02Mar

Launch of the Innovators Forum at 7th Sankalp Africa Summit

March 2, 2020 Ordia Event, News 43
The session hosted by Villgro Kenya focused on building a vibrant community and ecosystem for medical devices and diagnostics innovation and manufacturing in the region.
Read more
26Feb

Innovators Forum – Harnessing the 4th Industrial Revolution(Hardware Innovations) to drive UHC in Africa

February 26, 2020 Ordia Event 35
The multisectoral event which will take place during the 7th Sankalp Africa Summit will bring together innovators, investors, enablers, entrepreneurs, health program administrators, policymakers and
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28Jan

Leveraging Homegrown Angel Investors to Spur Growth of Innovations

January 28, 2020 Ordia News 38

Villgro Kenya aims to impact not only innovative health start-ups but also grow the ecosystem in terms of growth in investments. In the second part of an interview with Paul Belknap, we gain insights on the need for more homegrown angel investments to catapult innovations within the ecosystem.

90% of capital injected into startups in East Africa comes from the West. While we have successful entrepreneurs within our borders they are wary to invest in start-ups and instead choose to invest in other sectors like real estate. This is majorly due to the lack of strong regulatory measures, unpredictable timelines and their traditional understanding of investment which makes investing in the innovations seem like throwing money into a hole.

Undoubtedly Kenya has been named as a frontier for innovations in Africa however, we still need to do more to show homegrown investors the value the world sees in innovation and convince them to put more money in the ecosystem to move the innovations to the next stage.

Q: Villgro Kenya has contributed to the health innovation ecosystem largely through its investments into early-stage companies and incubation programs. However, there is a gap in funding startups to scale, what can be done to mitigate this?

P: We can’t solve this problem by ourselves but one of the things that we saw in India was that there were so many more complementary sources of funding available for early-stage entrepreneurs. Government grants, angel investors and other grant funding/more investors with an early stage appetite, we need more of that.

One of the things Villgro Kenya has identified that we need to be able to fund startups to a greater extent in their journey than we needed to in India because there is a lack of complementary funding. On the order of $150k would help those companies move to the plate where they would start to match up with some of the investors that are more active in the ecosystem, some would come in the form of co-investment with early-stage investors as well.

Increasing our ability to fund companies and invest in companies is important but we can’t do it all by ourselves. If you look at things that Kenya & Uganda needs to work on, the government can play a role in terms of doing investments/grants into early-stage companies.

I don’t know that any government is great at investing in early-stage companies. The more successful ones have done a funds approach where they are allocated a set of resources and they pick management to do those investments for them.

There is a real need for more angel investment into startups in the ecosystem. Angel investment or the same individuals can consider investing in funds interested in tackling the pre-seed stage of funding under $150k- 500k.

I’ve talked to a few people who are frustrated with investors seeing real estate as the safe bet. Getting people excited into investing in entrepreneurship particularly the health sector seems to be lagging which is contributed by the fact that there have been very few successes in the health sector making people more cautious in investing into it.

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Dr. Beatrice Murage

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Dr. Beatrice Murage is an experienced, results-oriented leader in systems strengthening, healthcare management, entrepreneurship, intrapreneurship, digital innovation and exploration/ventures. She has successfully built teams and led strategy, policy formulation, and project implementation in emerging and established markets.

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Ordia Akelo holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Linguistics Media and Communication from Moi University. She was awarded a Climate Tracker Fellowship as a Climate journalist in 2016 & 2017. She has worked as a writer, editor and managed websites & social media sites for Standard Media Group and the African Network for Internationalization of Education.

Immanuel Momanyi_VK Pic

Immanuel is a Senior Portfolio Associate on Villgro Kenya’s team. Prior to Villgro Kenya, Immanuel gained multi-sectoral experience working firsthand with businesses throughout Sub-Saharan Africa to develop new business strategies, raise capital, and pioneer innovative products and services. He is an alumni of Zamara Actuaries, Administrators and Consultants and holds a Bachelors in Actuarial Science from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology. Immanuel likes everything related to nature, cars, and believes gaming is cool.

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Rescue by Flare, an emergency response platform in Kenya is using their robust dispatch system to manage all intake and triage at Kenya’s main COVID-19 isolation, testing, and treatment facilities.

As part of the Wheels For Life consortium, they have also partnered with the Ministry of Health Kenya, AMREF, Bolt, Pharmaccess Foundation, Kenya Healthcare Federation, and Telesky to get expectant mothers to the hospital during curfew hours.

Through their network of first responders, the team has fielded 3,714  calls, dispatched 198 taxis, and 60 ambulances. Their fast response rates have helped save the lives of an average of 8 mothers every night, since the initiative began.

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Telemedicine platform enables patients to get treatment from any part of the country without having to visit a hospital physically and exposing themselves to COVID-19.

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Artificial Intelligence based solutions and data analytics for diagnosis of Covid-19 from Xray images. Have developed a system that detects COVID-19 using AI in real time.
Images can be uploaded to the system via a website portal and diagnosis is returned in real time

VentilateAfrica

Ventilate Africa have developed a ventilator locally for the treatment of COVID 19. This is in line with the impending global shortage of ventilators due to the high number of cases in countries with low healthcare infrastructure.

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A functional prototype of a locally manufactured ventilator developed using a wind screen motor. Currently working closely with the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute to develop the second prototype that meets global standards.

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Simbona Africa, an Ethiopian healthcare research and development company developed a fully automated UVC room sterilizer for use in hospitals and public spaces.

The  UVC apparatus is fitted with UVC lamps (8 watts) that emit high-intensity ultraviolet light that is able to kill microorganisms and pathogens found on surfaces in the room including COVID-19. It has the ability to disinfect up to 40 square meters of a room at any given time.

They have manufactured 14 units and are in the process of delivering 30 orders requested from the Ministry of Health Ethiopia. Villgro Kenya will help scale their production and unlock regional partnerships so that their devices can serve other countries within the region.

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Medixus is a case management platform for medical practitioners which also has a tele-medicine interface for patients. In response to COVID-19 they have incorporated daily fact based updates on COVID-19 for clinicians.

Using the platform, clinicians can share case studies of patients securely, professionally discuss, debate, ask questions and share their insights.

The platform has helped improve case management and clinical practice.

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Lishe Living is offering chronic disease management via an online platform to reduce risk of COVID-19 mortality and morbidity from pre-existing conditions. With social distancing requirements in place reduced hospital visits have been recorded leading to a burden on patients with non-communicable diseases to manage their conditions. With Lishe Living they are able to reduce the risk of infection as they can manage their conditions from the comfort of their homes. Villgro Kenya’s support will help net the right partnerships with key stakeholders while giving them appropriate mentorship from our pool of mentors well versed in the sector.

neopanda

Neopenda, a remote vital signs monitor for low resource settings is modifying the Neoguard device so that it can measure vital signs in adults and children, with potential to help with the response to the COVID-19 pandemic. With adequate technical support, the device will help medics respond faster to medical emergencies related to COVID-19  It can also help in identifying suspected cases who are being monitored.

The remote vital signs monitor which helps reduce the burden of a high patient to doctor ratio in rural Uganda will also help lower their risk of contracting the virus as it reduces the frequency of physical monitoring.

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Kijenzi uses 3D technology to manufacture spare parts of broken down medical equipment locally and at a fraction of the cost of buying new equipment. Kijenzi’s manufacturing hub in Kisumu is responding to the COVID-19 pandemic by producing PPE’s like touchless door handles and face shields for hospital staff and other essential workers. With the technical support from Villgro Kenya, the team has delivered over 2100 face shields to 24 medical facilities.

New Team Images_Dr Kevin

Ms. Snider Mugese is a BSc. Financial Engineering graduate from Jomo Kenyatta university of Agriculture and technology (JKUAT). She is also a certified Public accountant (CPA K) currently pursuing a certification in Finance and Investment analysis. She previously worked as an accountant at NewQuest Consulting Limited, an accounting firm where she handled various companies in Bookkeeping and Tax and held a team supervisory role.

John Masanda

John Masanda is an astute entrepreneur and business executive with experience and expertise to lead diverse teams with multiple skills and multicultural background.

John has successful participated in various enterprises start-up and growth, diversifications, new products launch, new markets entry, business consolidation, mergers and acquisitions, funding and investment decisions.

John is Founder & CEO of Malfini Capital Ltd (MCL) which is investment and stockholder in Malfini Gas Ltd a distributor of BOC GASES; a leading global brand of gases and process engineering services, Malfini Energy Ltd a distributor of petroleum products Fuels & CALTEX LUBRICANTS; a leading global brand and Malfini Logistics Ltd a 3PL logistics service provider, commodity trading and FMCG distributor. MCL is an investor in Malfini Gas DRC Sarl a joint venture company participating in development of the Lake Kivu Methane Gas Project to produce methane gas for both domestic use, industrial use and power generation. John does provides advisory services to; FasterCapital LLC a virtual incubator co-founding and cofounding start-ups with innovative app-based or online based solutions, Villgro Kenya an incubator of innovative ideas on healthcare and biosciences and Capital One Group a corporate communications agency with East Africa operations and Ugavilla Development Co. Ltd a developer of affordable housing.

John has been CEO of Kenlloyd Logistics Ltd; which grew to be regional network partner and franchisee of DB Schenker of Germany; a leading global logistics service provider, negotiated and performed Fuel Supply Agreement with Jacobsen Elektro AS of Norway supporting seamlessly their 50Mw power plant in Uganda for 7 years, negotiated and signed a PPP concession with Government Of Uganda through City Authority and a subsidiary; Pioneer Easy Bus Ltd to operate public transport passenger services for 5 years. John has been instrumental in negotiating and introducing into East Africa innovative construction technologies and alternative building technologies; Probase Road System (‘’PRS’’) for roads and Lightweight Concrete Methodology (‘’LCM’’) for housing.

Daniel Ohonde-01

Daniel Ohonde is a dynamic, strategic and visionary leader with more than 25 years of exceptional leadership experience in CEO / COO and investment stewardship roles managing high performance teams. He has a combination of international development experience and broad commercial experience gained from diverse markets. His experience in the provision of patient capital to small and growing businesses (SGBs) is extensive across Africa and, as a member of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs (ANDE) Global Executive Committee, he also brings on board a deep understanding of the SGB landscape in other developing and emerging markets globally. He is former CEO at the Africa Enterprise Challenge Fund (AECF). His passion is in supporting and catalyzing early stage (and scaling) innovative enterprises and business models that can sustainably deliver social change.
He has a rich mix of human resources, operations, strategy, finance, investment, governance, resource mobilization and portfolio management experience having previously worked (across various locations internationally) with African Development Bank, Real People Financial Services, African Management Services Company (AMSCO), USAID, Plus Consultants, ExxonMobil, Coca-Cola Africa, and WestConsult.
Daniel has a BSc in Mechanical Engineering from University of Nairobi, MBA in Strategic Management from USIU-A and an MSc in Finance from the University of London. He is an avid tennis and cricket supporter, is married and blessed with two sons

Dr. Abdi Mohamed-01

Dr. Abdi Mohamed is an award winning serial entrepreneur who was voted as one of the Top 40 under 40 men in Kenya. He is the co-founder and CEO of Ladnan Hospital which has been acquired by a PE Fund. Dr. Abdi has been elected into leadership positions by his medical professional colleagues. Dr. Abdi has strong entrepreneurial acumen with a leaning towards social enterprises.

Wesley 2019

Wesley Ronoh is a seasoned Pharmaceutical Sector Development Expert having worked and consulted for leading International Development Agencies within East Africa and beyond. He has a deep understanding of the health technologies landscape in the developing world having been involved in developing regional and national policies and other strategic interventions aimed at improving access. He has core competencies in Life Science Product Development including technology transfer management, commercialization, manufacture and delivery to market. Wesley is a Registered Pharmacist with postgraduate degrees in Medicinal Chemistry and MBA.

Paul Basil

Mr. Basil is Founder and CEO of Villgro Innovations Foundation. Over the last decade, Mr. Basil has incubated over 130 innovative enterprises, creating over 4000 jobs, touching around 5 million lives in villages across India.

Mr. Basil also co-founded Menterra Venture Advisors, a seed stage, impact fund that makes venture investments in for-profit, impactful enterprises.

Apart from the core of his mission, which is incubating early stage, innovative businesses, Paul also has contributed to building the social enterprise eco-system in India. Unconvention, India’s leading conference on innovation and social entrepreneurship is organized in 15 cities across India, a Centre for Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIT-Madras that focuses on research and education, the ANDE India Chapter (Aspen Network for Development Entrepreneurs) a network of intermediaries that support small and growing businesses etc., are some of his achievements in building the eco-system in India.

Mr. Basil was awarded the Ashoka Fellowship in 2002 for his outstanding social entrepreneurship in setting up Villgro. He has also been conferred the Samaj Seva Bhushan Award and the Star Entrepreneur Award

Paul

Paul Belknap is COO, Villgro Kenya. Paul has diverse experience in both product development and social business incubation. He spent three and a half years building the Villgro India health portfolio by sourcing pipeline, leading diligence and portfolio management for multiple companies.

Rob

Rob brings a unique combination of seasoned experience in business and social entrepreneurship, education and technology. Rob is a visionary leader who has lived in Kenya for the past 11 years and is fully aware of the unique challenges that Kenyans face seeking sustainable livelihoods within the East African context.

Robert

Robert serves as the CEO, Villgro Kenya where he is spearheading the replication of the Villgro incubation model of social entrepreneurship and impact investment in the healthcare and life sciences industry. He has over 10 years of experience in global health R&D as a biomedical scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) where he discovered his passion for impacting peoples’ lives through science and innovation.

Wilfred

Wilfred brings in diverse experience having lived and worked in Middle East, Asia and Africa and travelled to 8 countries. His first immersion into startup and incubation world came while pitching his idea to a Jordanian based incubator, OASIS500. He went on to do a one year Villgro fellowship in India after which he took up the challenge of scaling Villgro to Africa.

Dr Kevin

Dr. Kevin Muite is an Investment Manager with Villgro Kenya. Kevin holds a PhD in Immunology from the University of Chicago and a former consultant for large pharmaceutical clients. He began his scientific career in Durban South Africa researching HIV at the Doris Duke Medical Center at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal during his undergraduate years. He spent a year conducting research at Virginia Tech as an NIH post baccalaureate fellow researching mucosal immunology. ​

Gibson

Gibson holds a Bachelor’s degree in Arts (Economics) from the University of Nairobi. He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA K) . He previously worked as a freelancing Accounts and Tax Consultant for SMEs and a junior financial analyst at Fledge-Africa, a financial consulting company providing investment readiness and fund raising support for Villgro Kenya’s portfolio, where he discovered his passion for due diligence and financial modeling

Moses

Moses holds an MSc. in Global Health from the University of Manchester and a Bachelor of Business Administration specializing in entrepreneurship from the Kenya Methodist University. He has diverse experience in managing health research and intervention programs covering areas such as substance abuse, mental health, HIV/AIDS, health promotion and behavior change programs. He has held senior roles in several non-profits including the Private Sector Development Trust, The Institute of Quantity Surveyors of Kenya and SCAD.