Healthcare-focused incubator and investor Villgro Africa looking for female founders
Healthcare-focused incubator and investor Villgro Africa is looking for female founders leading innovative health startups across the continent, with the aim of providing venture support to help them scale.
In 2017, the India-based Villgro Innovations Foundation opened up shop in Africa with the establishment of Villgro Kenya, an impact investor and early-stage business incubator that provides funding, networks, and guidance to East African startups in the healthcare and life sciences domain.
After changing its name to Villgro Africa in 2020, it spread throughout the continent and has so far provided seed funding worth over $1 million to dozens of businesses.
An information session about how Villgro can assist is open to African female founders with health solutions that have the potential to have a significant social impact. These founders are looking for a nurturing environment in which to develop their ideas and assist in refining their skills for navigating the startup world with ease.
Solutions that show a great deal of promise for major advancements in healthcare access and equity in all areas pertinent to the health needs of Africa are welcome to apply. Technology of any kind that contributes to the development of methods for managing, treating, and preventing disease is acceptable.
Access to networks of support, opportunities for funding and mentoring, technical know-how, and sponsorship will be advantageous to the ventures that are chosen.
“Our experience has underscored noticeable gender imbalance in the healthcare innovation space and the undesirable impact of limited diversity in innovation on equitable healthcare,” the organisation said.
“Female founders encounter numerous pain points, from limited startup support programmes that are sensitive to the natural ways in which women flourish in connecting, collaborating, and engaging in the start-up space, to support from family and friends and biased assessment approaches in pitching for funding across the entire funding spectrum – pre-seed and beyond.”
Villgro Africa responded by stating that it was attempting to jointly develop platforms and systems that would enable female entrepreneurs to flourish as opposed to just surviving while establishing their businesses.
“This call is part of our efforts to increase the participation of female founders across the continent. By offering support throughout the application process and sharing information on it, we aim to empower female founders to take advantage of opportunities in the healthcare innovation space,” Villgro said. “This call is part of our efforts to increase the participation of female founders across the continent. By offering support throughout the application process and sharing information on it, we aim to offer female founders approaches that are sensitive to their immutable role in creating impactful solutions in the healthcare innovation space.”
