Salient Advisory studies innovations in healthtech across the African continent. This newsletter summarizes the most interesting news we read each month. Submissions are welcome. Feel free to share.
Investing in Innovation convenes 3rd flagship Access to Markets event connecting leading innovators with strategic partners, for 2 days of partnership meetings
Investing in Innovation Africa (i3) hosted its 3rd flagship Access to Markets event in Lagos this month, connecting leading African healthtech companies with strategic partners to accelerate contracts, pilots, investments, and partnerships. The invite-only event convened 13 leading innovators alongside 41 investors, banks, pharma manufacturers, donors, DFIs, and multilateral agencies such as the Gates Foundation, World Bank’s Global Financing Facility, IFC, Cencora, MSD, Pfizer, Sanofi, Boehringer Ingelheim, HELP Logistics, Grand Challenges Canada, and more—all committed to scaling innovations that create jobs and expand healthcare access. Over 2 days, 100+ meetings exploring partnerships were held, and 2 new partnerships were announced:
- MYDAWA and MSD announced a collaboration to expand access to HPV vaccines in East Africa by delivering over 250,000 doses through at-home and in-clinic vaccination.
- Sproxil, Presidential Initiative for Unlocking the Healthcare Value Chain, and National Malaria Elimination Programme (NMEP) signed an MOU to combat malaria by improving access to diagnostics and treatments. The partnership leverages Sproxil’s test-to-treat model and AI-powered malaria surveillance to provide real-time data from pharmacies and patent medicine vendors, enabling collaboration with pharmaceutical manufacturers and giving NMEP insights to track distribution, monitor disease patterns, and ensure accountability.
Watch Channels Television coverage of the event here.
Innovators raise funding to drive growth and expansion
Rology, an Egypt‑based teleradiology startup, closed a major growth funding round, backed by Philips Foundation, Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures, Sanofi, and MIT Solve, to scale its AI‑enabled teleradiology platform across the Middle East and Africa. With rapid turnaround on diagnostic reports, Rology aims to bridge critical radiology access gaps, particularly in underserved and remote communities where radiologist shortages persist.
Immobazyme, a South African biotech company, secured additional growth capital, bringing its total funding to $2.9 million. The investment supports its efforts to build localized capacity for biologics production, which could reduce reliance on imports and strengthen the region’s resilience to global supply disruption.
Ghana’s CarePoint, a tech‑forward healthcare provider, is taking its digitally-powered micro-clinic model beyond West Africa. Backed by a $3 million loan from Japan International Cooperation Agency under its Private Sector Investment Finance scheme, CarePoint is rolling out compact, tech‑enabled clinics into Egypt, aiming to bridge persistent access gaps. Rather than build full hospitals or rely purely on telemedicine, CarePoint acquires underperforming clinics and layers on a proprietary tech stack, creating a hybrid model that aims to unlock access to quality care in underserved areas while keeping costs manageable
Lenacapavir introduction to African markets is underway—and healthtech innovations can help
Lenacapavir offers a transformative new option for HIV prevention. As Salient has argued, getting the medication to patients who need it requires engaging health facilities in the private sector, and supply chain startups could help lower the cost of doing so. A rapid analysis of 6 innovative traceability providers suggests companies like Sproxil, Figorr and more could be engaged at relatively low cost to support end-to-end visibility; ~$0.02 per dose at scale.
