2023 funding opportunities in digital healthtech ecosystem 

By Alexander Chiejina

• Grants, funds support innovative health solutions

Health is a fundamental human right of every citizen and in recent times, the health tech space has been inundated with innovative solutions aimed at improving access to healthcare across the African continent, including Nigeria, with more investors investing more funds into the sector. With a population estimated at over 1.3 billion people, the African, and the Nigerian market especially, offers immense potential for investment in healthcare services for investors.

The tremendous growth in the digital health and tech ecosystem has led to the advent of new technologies and innovation aimed at transforming how healthcare is delivered, making it more patient-centred, efficient, and effective. At the heart of this is that it is offering significant growth opportunities for investors seeking to invest in the sector.

We have curated in this piece funding opportunities for health startups based in Nigeria and other parts of the African continent in 2023.

1. Making More Health Accelerator Programme 2023

Deadline: January 13, 2023

Applicants are invited to submit their applications for the Making More Health Business Accelerator Programme, a structured business growth programme targeted at social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions in the health sector. The programme offers two engagement phases.

Phase 1, called the “Pilot Phase”, runs for 12 months and focuses on supporting entrepreneurs to:

• identify strategic challenges and/or opportunities related to the growth, sustainability and impact of their social enterprises

• co-create and test relevant solutions.

Phase 2, called the “Scale-up Phase” also runs for 12 months and focuses on supporting participants to scale up successful solutions from the first phase of engagement. In both phases, participating entrepreneurs are provided with access to technical support from Boehringer Ingelheim employees, strategic networks, financial resources, and a platform to collaborate, learn and engage with fellow social entrepreneurs and other ecosystem actors.

Focus Areas

The accelerator broadly focuses on supporting social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions aimed at advancing access to healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa. Solutions may be both in the animal or human health field. The specific countries from which they are currently selecting participants are Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Ghana.

Human health: Human healthcare solutions of interest broadly include any innovation that is tackling barriers to awareness, access, affordability, and availability of healthcare services in underserved communities. Of particular interest are innovations that are addressing non-communicable (NCDS) as the main area of focus or as a core part of a broader intervention scope. NCDS include diabetes, hypertension, myocardial infarction, stroke, respiratory disease, and cancers.

Animal health: Animal Health is a critical part of healthcare, and they are interested in supporting the most innovative solutions tackling barriers to awareness, access, affordability, and availability of animal healthcare. Of particular interest are solutions at the last mile as well as those tackling issues related to human-animal transmission.

The benefits of this programme are enormous: from knowledge access to technical expertise, strategic networks, financial and Investor access support, including strategic business collaborations.

Criteria

Individuals can apply for the programme if they have an innovative human or animal health solution that fits the description provided and if they meet the criteria.

• Legal Entity: Company limited by guarantee, Limited liability company, NGO

• Age: At least three years of operation

• Sector: Human or animal health related.

• Country of operation: Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda.

• Revenue: At least USD 100K in annual sales revenue.

• Impact: Evidence of social impact with clearly defined impact metrics.

2. Future of Health Grants

Deadline: January 15, 2023

The Future of Health Grant is an equity-free 4-month program that provides bridges between startup maturity tiers so that they receive the funding they need according to how they progress. The programme is expected to assist digital health startups boost their innovation by providing them with the resources and funding they need to progress. The programme is designed to be flexible, so that startups can receive the funding they need as they progress through the different stages of their development. This will allow them to retain control of their companies and continue to innovate and grow without diluting their ownership.

The programme is a great opportunity for digital health startups to get the funding they need to boost their innovation and growth. In addition to the grant money, startups also benefit from human expertise in the form of: coaches, mentors and on-demand experts for specific technical needs. This support is invaluable as startups work to bring their products and services to the marketplace.

Who can Apply?

The 3-level grant programme will benefit all early-stage digital health projects, from the individual PhD still in a lab and wannabe-entrepreneur, to seed-stage startup building its solution.

The Future of Health programme has partnered with some of the most famous names in the health industry and recognized academics from Western Switzerland to have a major impact on digital health. These industry experts have the will to achieve results and contribute their valuable networks to the success of the programme. Their involvement will help ensure that the programme is able to achieve its goals and deliver its promises.

3. Grand Challenges Senegal

Deadline: January 31, 2023

Grand Challenges Senegal is soliciting proposals from innovators working across Africa and African scientists in the diaspora on interventions to enhance epidemic intelligence, surveillance, and outbreak response. The purpose of Grand Challenges Senegal is to advance the ecosystem for public health innovation in Africa. Grand Challenges Senegal will deploy grant funding to test new ideas led by innovators working in the region and African scientists in the diaspora.

Grand Challenges initiatives are united by their focus on fostering innovation, directing research to where it will have the most impact, and serving those most in need. Grand Challenges Senegal will be no different and prioritise innovators that

a) integrate across disciplines and converge solutions.

b) prioritise Senegal as a setting to exemplify the work but with regional impact and potential for reach, and

c) apply the very latest science into an ecosystem that is evolving into a hub for translational impact and production.

Up to 8 proposals will be supported with a grant of $50,000 over a period of 18 months. On completion, successful projects will be eligible for assistance with additional resource mobilisation, project planning and grant monitoring.  A second call for proposals will be launched in October 2023.

Successful proposals will address one or more of the programme areas defined above and be based in Senegal. Projects with a component in Senegal and another African country will be considered eligible, as will projects led by African scientists in the diaspora in partnership with an institution in Senegal.

4. Developing a Public Health Tool to Predict the Virality of Vaccine Misinformation Narratives

Deadline: January 6, 2023

The purpose of this Notice of Funding Opportunity is to support research to develop a predictive forecasting model that identifies new or reemerging misinformation narratives that are likely to disseminate widely and have a high potential for impact on vaccine confidence. The information from this model will then be used to develop a tool that public health agencies could use to predict misinformation trends in the populations served. Finally, the researchers will evaluate the tool’s predictive capabilities on both future social media misinformation narratives and real-world events.

5. Laboratories to Optimize Digital Health

Deadline: February 5, 2023; June 5, 2023; October 5, 2023

Digital health incorporates mobile health (mHealth) and health information technology (smartphones, wearable sensors, internet platforms, and electronic health records) with biological, social, and behavioural data. Digital health technology offers unprecedented opportunities to help consumers, clinicians, and researchers measure, manage, and improve health and productivity. These tools also have the potential to improve our understanding of mental illness, to track the course of illnesses and recovery, and to provide and enhance mental health care. NIMH seeks applications for innovative research projects to test strategies to increase the reach, efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of digital mental health interventions which may impact mental health outcomes, including suicide behaviors and serious mental illness.

6. UNICEF Venture Fund

Deadline: Ongoing

The UNICEF Venture Fund makes $50–100K early stage investments in technologies for children developed by UNICEF country offices or companies in UNICEF programme countries. By providing flexible funding to early-stage innovators, it allows UNICEF to quickly assess, fund and grow open-source technology solutions that show potential to positively impact the lives of vulnerable children.