The second Africa HealthTech Challenge has been announced by the HealthTech Hub Africa, which was established by the Novartis Foundation at the Norrsken House in Kigali. It is looking for high-impact innovators with business-to-government-focused solutions and business models with the potential to significantly improve population health at scale.
The HealthTech Hub Africa is an African-wide health-tech accelerator with a physical co-working and community facility in Kigali, Rwanda. The hub is a component of a new investment initiative that intends to revolutionize the development of health technologies created by Africans for use in Africa and to aid in the acceleration of breakthroughs in public health systems in close coordination with top government officials.
The center is now starting the second iteration of its Africa HealthTech Challenge to put that plan into action. The first year of the initiative acted as phase one in creating a blueprint for a public-private mechanism to fast-track e-health Innovations for public health in Africa.
In actuality, it consists of four unique challenges that address breast cancer, cardiovascular health, virtual health and care, and data-driven decision-making optimization. Selected businesses will take part in a 10-month accelerator program. Depending on their stage, startups will get varied levels of mentoring, coaching, expert masterclasses, pitch practice sessions, networking opportunities, access to services, and media training. Additionally, financing options will be available.
“For the 2023 cohort, we are looking for up to 30 growth startups and 10 scale-ups from the whole African continent with innovative business models allowing for collaboration with local and national governments and aiming to support health systems in their digital transformation journeys,” the organizers said.
“For each of the two tracks, the key criteria of evaluation for the applicants are based on their ability to demonstrate the innovation potential to successfully address challenges in one or more of the four thematic areas of focus for the hub, their product excellence, team, fit-to-market, sustainability and scalability model in relation to working with the public system.”
The deadline for applications is October 23.
