Nairobi Kenya, Feb 23 – Early stage business incubator Villgro Africa has invested Sh171.8 million ($1.32 million) into Kenyan health startups in seven years.
Out of Sh271.5 million committed, 36 Kenyan companies received lion share.
Villgro Chief executive officer and Co-Founder Wilfred Njagi said Kenyan startups received the lion’s share of Villgro Africa’s investments accounting.
“Since inception, Villgro Africa has enabled access to healthcare to those at the bottom of the pyramid. In the past seven years, Villgro has steadily invested seed funding in social enterprises with homegrown solutions that are solving Africa’s healthcare and lifestyle dilemmas,” he said.
“To date, these enterprises have generated revenues of over $5.2 million, generated 540 jobs and touched more than 2 million lives.”
Robert Karanja, co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Villgro Africa said that local manufacturing in the healthcare sector presents an opportunity for startups and investors.
“Going forward, local sources of funding will be needed. Reduced international funding would be an opportunity for African governments, coorporates, and others to invest in the start-up ecosystem,” he said.
He added that, “As we celebrate 7 years of growth and impact, we are incredibly grateful for a pipeline of quality companies, for funders who believe in the vision, our board members and mentors who freely give of their time and expertise and our clients who entrust their plans to our team.
Villgro Africa has however, set its eyes on launching an Incubator-Fund Platform in partnership with Jaza Rift Fund, with a target fund size of $30 million, aimed at supporting startups graduating from the incubator.
“As we continue to scale, we are excited about the launch of a Biotech Innovation Hub that will create shared value by leveraging East Africa’s genetic diversity to accelerate the development of drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics for the control and elimination of poverty-related diseases, rare diseases, neglected tropical diseases and NCDs,” explained Wilfred.
To achieve this, Villgro Africa has set its eyes on launching an Incubator-Fund Platform in partnership with Jaza Rift Fund, with a target fund size of $30 million, aimed at supporting startups graduating from the incubator.
Notable startups that Villgro Africa has invested in include Drop Access, a Kenyan company locally manufacturing portable solar powered, Bena Care which is a company providing home-based care and Negus Med, an advanced wound care and theatre textiles distribution and manufacturing company.
