February 3rd, 2025, Lagos, Nigeria. Investing in Innovation Africa (i3), a pan-African initiative to support African healthtech startups to commercialise and scale their offerings has decided to make a pivotal change to its 3rd cohort selection to prioritise the immediate support for 5-7 growth-stage companies building the Future of Pharmacy care in Africa. It comes in response to the U.S. State Department’s “stop-work” directive for foreign aid issued on January 25th, which is anticipated to impact the distribution of essential medicine in Africa’s healthcare supply chains. The order highlights and intensifies the need for locally-driven, market-creating approaches to health product distribution and service delivery across Africa.
Funded by the Gates Foundation, MSD, Cencora, Endless Foundation, HELP Logistics (a subsidiary of the Kühne Foundation), Sanofi’s Global Health Unit and Chemonics, the i3 program will concentrate its immediate efforts to help innovative growth-stage startups unlock major partnerships to rapidly expand access to patient care. The selected start-ups will also receive up to $225K in grant funds. i3 aims to expand support to early-stage companies at a later date.
Applications for the 3rd cohort are open until February 28th. Apply here: innovationsinafrica.com/application.
The selected startups will be announced on April 30th. A virtual Q&A session will be hosted by i3 on February 21st to answer any questions regarding the application process. i3 is coordinated by Salient Advisory and Solina Center for International Development and Research (SCIDaR).
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For additional information please contact : Salient@wimbart.com
About the Gates Foundation
Guided by the belief that every life has equal value, the Gates Foundation works to help all people lead healthy, productive lives. In developing countries, we work with partners to create impactful solutions so that people can take charge of their futures and achieve their full potential. In the United States, we aim to ensure that everyone—especially those with the fewest resources—has access to the opportunities needed to succeed in school and life. https://www.gatesfoundation.org/
About MSD
At MSD, known as Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA in the United States and Canada, we are unified around our purpose: We use the power of leading-edge science to save and improve lives around the world. For more than a century, we’ve been at the forefront of research, bringing forward medicines, vaccines and innovative health solutions for the world’s most challenging diseases. For more information, visit www.msd.com and connect with us on X, LinkedIn and YouTube.
About Cencora
Formerly known as AmerisourceBergen, Cencora is a leading global pharmaceutical solutions organization centered on improving the lives of people and animals around the world. Cencora partners with pharmaceutical innovators across the value chain to facilitate and optimize market access to therapies. Care providers depend on Cencora for the secure, reliable delivery of pharmaceuticals, healthcare products, and solutions. Cencora’s 46,000+ worldwide team members contribute to positive health outcomes through the power of Cencora’s purpose: Cencora is united in its responsibility to create healthier futures. Cencora is ranked #10 on the Fortune 500 and #18 on the Global Fortune 500 with more than $290 billion in annual revenue. Learn more at http://cencora.com
Endless Foundation
Endless Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to unlocking human potential through technology.
Focused on empowering communities through holistic and integrated primary care, the foundation makes catalytic investments in innovative tools and interventions that enhance healthcare access and outcomes, such as enabling patients and frontline providers with AI, engaging pharmacies in primary care, and aligning provider incentives with patient-centered measures of experience and outcomes. Their mission is to bridge healthcare gaps worldwide by leveraging technology to create sustainable, inclusive health systems. https://www.endlessnetwork.com/initiative-health.html
About HELP Logistics
Established in 2014, HELP Logistics is a non-profit organization based in Schindellegi, Switzerland and a subsidiary of the Kühne Foundation. With five regional offices strategically located in Singapore (Asia), Germany (Europe), Amman (Middle East), Nairobi (East Africa), and Dakar (West Africa), our mission is to act as a global catalyst for advancing supply chain and logistics expertise to enhance the lives, opportunities, and resilience of people, communities, and economies worldwide. For more information, visit: https://www.help-logistics.org and follow us on LinkedIn.
Sanofi’s Global Health Unit
Sanofi’s Global Health Unit is a pioneering, not-for-profit social business model with a mission to improve the lives of underserved populations in 40 countries with the highest unmet medical needs through innovative inclusive healthcare models and partnerships, delivering a sustainable impact. Established in 2022, the Impact Investment Fund is focused on supporting the scale-up of businesses to improve access to healthcare by supporting startup companies and other innovators who can deliver scalable solutions for healthcare in underserved regions. For more information, visit: https://www.impact.sanofi/
About Chemonics International
Founded in 1975, Chemonics is a leading global sustainable development firm for one reason: our people. We are 6,000+ professionals in more than 100 countries around the globe, and 90 percent of us are working in a community we’ve long called home. Our teams reflect a diversity of technical expertise and local knowledge because solving complex development challenges requires both. And as a company, we are committed to connections – global and local, human and technological – that allow learnings to efficiently flow and adapt between experts, projects, and countries. Where Chemonics works, development works. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter or visit us at https://chemonics.com/
About Salient Advisory
Launched in 2020 with a globally distributed team in Kenya, Nigeria and Canada, Salient Advisory helps changemakers enact transformative approaches to health. The company analyses and supports partnerships to use technology and innovations, adapt policy and financing, and elevate unheard voices to change global conversations and transform access to care. https://www.salientadvisory.com/
About SCIDaR
SCIDaR is an indigenous, Nigeria-based health systems consulting and implementation non-profit organisation that works with governments, development organisations, and the private sector to optimise population health outcomes. It applies proven business and market-shaping techniques and utilises its relationships and understanding of Africa's public and private sector health system actors to ensure sustainable impact. https://scidar.org/
