Salient Advisory studies innovations in health tech across the African continent. This newsletter summarizes the most interesting news we read each month. Submissions are welcome. Feel free to share.
🎉 Our latest report: Leading Innovations Enabling Health Product Access in Africa
Salient Advisory’s latest market intelligence report profiles 24 leading innovators transforming access to health products on the continent, describing their innovative models, successes, challenges, and more. These innovators collectively partner with 100+ manufacturers, reach around 50,000 providers, and deliver health products to millions of consumers directly.
They represent a growing force in African health tech, capturing 57% of the funding raised across African health tech ecosystems in 2023. Kasha, the top-grossing company, reported just over $50 million in revenue for 2023–the highest reported by an African health supply chain innovator to date during our research.
Our report outlines key strategies needed to leverage innovators’ solutions to transform local health markets and achieve equitable access to health products and services, especially for unserved populations. It advocates for governments, industry, donors, and global health agencies to simplify regulatory pathways, explore innovators’ ability to generate cost-savings for health systems and evolve contracting and payment systems to enable the engagement of innovators to support healthcare delivery systems at a larger scale. Read the full report!
Cameroon is the latest African country digitizing health data
Cameroon’s Ministry of Economy, Planning and Regional Development is implementing an upgrade and digitization of the country’s civil registration system, tracking key healthcare data. The move builds on a recent pilot project digitizing birth registration in 20 municipal councils. Once completed, the improved civil registration system will digitally track birth and death events, ensuring a data-driven approach to health and social care planning and resource allocation.
Innovators secure pre-seed funding to test and scale models
Intron Health, a Nigerian clinical speech-recognition startup, secured $1.6 million in pre-seed funding to enhance its speech-to-text technology. Investors include Microtraction, Plug and Play Ventures, Jaza Rift Ventures, Octopus Ventures, Africa Health Ventures, OpenseedVC, Pi Campus, Alumni Angel and BakerBridge Capital. Founded in 2020, Intron Health is developing a medical speech recognition application that supports multiple local accents and languages and integrates with existing electronic medical records. The company has partnerships with Google Research, the Gates Foundation, and Digital Square at PATH to advance speech research in Africa and ensure inclusivity in large language models.
Blueroomcare, a digital therapy startup raised an undisclosed pre-seed funding round from EHA Impact Ventures, TVC Labs, and Innovest Africa. Based in Nigeria, the company offers insurance-covered consultations with therapists as it aims to improve affordable access to mental health. Still in Nigeria, online pharmacy OneHealth secured an undisclosed investment from Marula Square. Founded in 2018, OneHealth provides an integrated suite of healthcare solutions for patients, pharmacies, and insurers to enable access to healthcare products and services.
Elsewhere, more established players secured grants from Novartis Foundation and Healthtech Hub Africa: Helium Health and Emergency Response Africa (Nigeria), HealthX Africa and Aurora Health Systems (Kenya), eFiche (Rwanda), MedTrack (Ghana) and Afya Intelligence (Tanzania) were all selected as winners of the HealthTech Hub Innovation Challenge 2024. Helium Health received a $100,000 grant, while the other six startups each received $50,000 to develop their innovations for public health needs in local markets.
Innovators are collaborating with financial service institutions to drive access to care
South African healthtech startup RecoMed partnered with Discovery Vitality, a financial and insurance service provider, to streamline the booking process for flu vaccines and vitality health checks. The partnership integrates 1,000+ Discovery Vitality providers into RecoMed’s platform, allowing users to easily schedule appointments online and access healthcare services. Founded in 2013, RecoMed offers an online booking platform that seamlessly connects patients, practitioners, and other healthcare providers.
Ethiopian women’s health startup YeneHealth partnered with VisionFund Microfinance Institution to provide financial support to women for healthcare services. The collaboration aims to bridge the gap between healthcare and financial inclusion, enabling more women to access essential health services. Founded in 2021, YeneHealth aims to increase women’s access to health information, products, and services.
Recommended Read
With major pharmaceutical giants shuttering operations in Nigeria over the past year, OneHealth, a Nigeria-based online pharmacy and digital healthcare provider, has launched a market research report tracking the impact of the withdrawals on drug availability and health outcomes.
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