Figorr, a young Nigerian startup in the Investing in Innovation (i3) program, is transforming Africa’s health supply chains with technology that offers end-to-end visibility of health products by monitoring their location, temperature, and humidity in real time. Initially critical during the COVID-19 pandemic for tracking Covid vaccines and reducing wastage in Nigeria, Figorr’s devices now monitor all routine vaccines delivered by the NPHCDA, impacting millions of lives. On the back of its success in Nigeria, Figorr has expanded to eight additional countries and tracked nearly 200 million health products.
Figorr exemplifies the type of African-led innovation i3 is passionate about supporting; locally-driven solutions that are ingenious, sustainable, and pave the way for a healthier, more resilient Africa. However, many multinational industry players, donors and global health agencies are unaware of their work. And Figorr is not alone.
Recognizing the gap between African-led healthtech start-ups and global health customers, in 2022 Salient (with our partners at SCIDaR), brought together a group of donors and industry leaders to: 1) rapidly democratize access to grant funding and 2) forge connections between African startups and global customers to power their impact at larger scale. Since i3’s launch 24 months ago, we have provided 60 of the most promising African-led healthtech startups in supply chain a $50K grant, and connected them to hundreds of local, regional and global customers.
In doing so, i3 has become the most active source of grant funding for healthtech supply chain companies in Africa, by number of deals. Innovators have forged more than 70 partnerships, generated over 500 jobs, and impacted approximately 150 million patient visits annually. Nearly half of the innovations we support are women-led. We’re poised for even greater impact in our second phase, aiming to help scale a set of leading companies to reach around 300 million patients and create thousands of local jobs.
Together with our sponsors The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Cencora, Chemonics, MSD & Microsoft, and partners SCIDaR, Villgro Africa, Cc Hub, IMPACT Lab, and SBC Afritech, we celebrate the power of African-led innovation and our joint commitment to fostering sustainable, resilient supply chains around the world. Join us! If you are looking to expand your reach and impact by connecting with leading African healthtech innovators, please contact us.
Check out our 2 minute video on Figorr’s work to expand across Nigeria – and beyond!
