Over the past few years we have seen improvements in the African healthcare sector. There is increased investment in quality hospitals and a growing focus on the development of quality doctors. To ensure this trend continues, and to accelerate these gains, it is critical we support more innovation in the space and encourage entrepreneurs to further disrupt the status quo.
There is a need for new, effective and efficient services that will further modernize the sector. A positive trend is to see a growing number of VC4Africa listed entrepreneurs eager to take on these challenges. They are keen to see a full transformation from traditional medicine to a modern and well structured system, one that better prepares African countries to meet the growing demands for quality healthcare services for their people. We are pleased to highlight promising ventures (as ranked by the community) and feature VC4A entrepreneurs for this post.
Penda Health (Kenya) – is a social enterprise that provides health services designed for low and middle income women in Kenya. Penda Health offers a quality healthcare option to replace the dismal options available in the market currently. They utilize a B2B model and their client for the clinic is the employer vs. the employee. They set up the clinic on-site and offer the services to woman on location.
eHealth (Nigeria) – works to provide eHealth and mHealth tools and services to various health stakeholders (government agencies, NGOs, private hospitals, and other health agencies) around West and Central Africa. They combine hardware, software, power, training, and communications infrastructure into easily accessible and deployable packages.
Ruby Cup (Kenya) – is a menstrual cup, an alternative menstrual hygiene product made of medical grade silicone that can be re-used up to 10 years. They target girls and women in developing countries, who are today struggling every month with affording sanitary products. They leverage a franchise model and the product is sold to organisations and distributed through a network of women entrepreneurs. This sales approach creates local employment, while fostering an intimate space where women can talk to women and girls about stigmatized issues and enhance education about menstrual hygiene.
MobiSure (Kenya) – is a disruptive mobile based service that offers medical insurance for the poor. Members buy daily insurance coverage using their mobile phone, families and individuals can buy insurance from as short as one day. MobiSure™ partners with small private hospitals, clinics and also leading hospitals and hospital chains, who are required to be registered MobiSure service providers.
MedicRAM (Nigeria) – captures medical experiences and prescription that can then be used for inward analysis to enhance treatment and preserve medical records for citizens. MedicRAM (Medical Records And Management) is an innovative modular health IT solution that is intended to transform the way healthcare is managed. It implements a unified repository for medical records of all medical practitioners and patients; and it ensures information security through the deployment of biometric data-access control solutions.
Mosqkiller (Tanzania) – a simple device designed to kill mposquitoes, affordable to every level of the community. The product is approved and tested and the team is now seeking funding to construct and equip a factory in Tanzania. This is a market they look to disrupt as millions are spent daily trying to beat this plague with inferior products.
Afridocsearch (Kenya) – is an e-health directory that stores, verifies and rates health listings in Africa. They obtain information, organize it, make it searchable and enhance consumer knowledge; hence ensuring quicker informed decision making. This availability of information helps providers and facilities improved service delivery because of competition in the market place. This availability of information also weeds out unlicensed and unqualified health providers and thereby reduces unfair competition. This approach is used to enhance quality service delivery overall.
We look forward to seeing more ventures come online in this space. If you are an entrepreneur working to tackle difficult health related challenges let us know. Equally, if you are an investor, or can support the development of these ventures in other ways, we would like to connect.