Apply: Second Edition of Africa HealthTech Challenge
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 hub is now starting the second iteration of its Africa HealthTech Challenge to put that plan into action. The first year of the program 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 receive varied levels of mentoring, coaching, expert masterclasses, pitch practice sessions, networking opportunities, access to services, and media training. Additionally, funding options will be available.
For the 2023 cohort, the organizers said they were looking for up to 30 growth startups and 10 scale-ups from across the African continent with creative business models that enabled collaboration with regional and national governments and supported health systems in their digital transformation efforts.
“For each of the two tracks, the key evaluation criteria for the applicants are based on their capacity 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,” according to the hub’s website.
Applications can be submitted here through October 23.
