A Moment to Celebrate
It’s been 5 years since we launched Salient! We started with one goal: to strengthen African health systems by shining a spotlight on those building the future. Today, we’re proud to have tracked a vibrant network of >1000 healthtech startups, disseminated 26 long-form reports read nearly 35K times, published 111 newsletters, and been featured in 648 media hits. We also directly supported 15 governments & regulators, >65 startups, and facilitated 630+ bespoke meetings with startups and customers. This resulted in >$20M flowing directly to Africa’s leading innovations through revenue and risk-tolerant grants to date.
While the work is serious, we’ve never lost sight of how special the people are. We got to work alongside 27 African business partners who are also building jobs, prosperity and health in the markets we care about. And along the way, our team grew too, with 7 promotions, 5 weddings, 5 babies, and 1 retirement. We’re energized by this progress – and we’re just getting started.
Salient’s mission has never been more urgent
The global health funding landscape is shifting faster than many expected. Aid structures are being dismantled, and amidst economic difficulties governments, industry and patients must urgently find new solutions to secure and expand access. Today, the costs of not building sustainable, locally-driven care are too high to ignore.
But Salient was founded on the belief that African innovators are already building solutions that will sustainably power health systems of the future. On our 5th birthday, we now expect to see impact emerge at scale. We’re looking out for…
- The reach of healthtech startups in Africa outpacing what we see in high income countries, while generating some of the best examples in the world of how technology can truly transform care. For example, companies like Patients Know Best who’ve spent more than a decade building for the UK’s National Health Service Trusts can sign a single deal with a Nigerian state providing the opportunity to double their scale.
- The rise of African manufacturing and biotech unlocking new opportunities to sustainably expand product access. Yemaachi, RevnaBio and Bio Usawa light the way. As new products come to market, the African Medicines Agency’s advances in product registration will help hasten introduction. Partnering with innovative distribution models will enable manufacturers to reduce costs and improve availability at facilities and the last-mile, while enabling novel visibility.
- ‘Digital front doors’ like Nivi (or Ada, Infermedica, others) connecting patients directly to trusted information, on-boarding them to a growing suite of self-care tests and treatments, or carefully triage them into facility-based care leveraging personalized chats in local languages.
- Rapidly digitizing health systems having the opportunity to build federated databases from the start, creating globally relevant data for research, drug and product development. Novel application of AI models combined with unique data sets will produce some of the most impactful applications of AI in healthcare delivery anywhere on the globe. Building the compute and infrastructure to bridge genomics, drug development, manufacturing, supply chain, service delivery and patient data could create a ‘fly wheel’ of impact.
- Investors from the African diaspora and Middle East emerging as powerful new partners in building digitalized markets.
- Pharmacy-based care continuing to drive patient access, leveraging technologies like digitally-enabled ordering and inventory management to superpower their shelves; expanding the range of products and services they provide to include vaccinations, PrEP, chronic care, testing, and more; linking in-person and digital journeys to ease customer journeys end-to-end, and more.
- Women founders in Africa continuing to capture investment at rates that outpace most other geographies.
- Young people continuing to demand better healthcare, create new jobs and fight to build prosperity.
- And more!
What’s Ahead: The Next 5 Years
But progress is tenuous, poverty is pernicious, and the pathways forward are not linear.
As visionary leaders continue to build across Africa, Salient will keep shining a light on your progress, supporting African-led health systems, and equipping decisions-makers with data they can trust. With new leaders at Salient’s helm in East and West Africa, Stella Kivila and Tosin Oshinubi, we are excited to:
- Deepen our advisory support to leading governments, manufacturers and distributors, in policy, regulation, and digitalization,
- Grow our Access to Markets events to connect a larger set of innovators, provider systems, payors, insurers, manufacturers, distributors, regulators, governments, and investors for impactful collaboration,
- Continue to tell the stories of African innovation globally,
- While maintaining relentless focus on our values: solving complex challenges with humility; building trust through accountability; centering curiosity and growth; and pursuing a more equitable world.
Gratitude & Invitation
We didn’t do this alone, so thank YOU. Whether you’ve hired us, mentored us, partnered with us, read about our work, or championed one of the many innovators we care about, your support has mattered. We continue to believe that trusted networks are key.
This is an invitation to continue building with us. The work ahead requires ongoing collaboration. There’s so much more to do, and we’re excited to keep learning, growing, and pushing forward. Together.
Onward and upward,
Mara, on behalf of all the Salient superstars, past & present!
The small-but-mighty crew, celebrating our first 5!
