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.
Zanzibar is testing AI-powered drones to enhance malaria elimination efforts
Zanzibar launched the Smart Drone Technology for a Malaria-Free Future project, a Japan-funded initiative led by the Ministry of Health, WHO, SORA Technology, and the Ifakara Health Institute. The initiative will deploy AI-powered drones for biolarviciding and aerial mapping of mosquito breeding sites — including hard-to-reach areas — as part of its Larval Source Management strategy. With malaria prevalence already as low as 0.04%, Zanzibar is pushing for full elimination, and the project will generate comparative evidence on the effectiveness and operational efficiency of drone-based versus conventional larviciding to inform that final push.
Global funders are backing African fem-tech and primary care innovators
UNICEF selected 5 African healthtech startups in its first cohort of UNICEF Femtech Ventures, a 5-year programme (2025–2030) backed by the Government of Sweden and Temasek Foundation. Selected from over 1,100 applications across 85 countries, 11 startups will each receive up to $100,000 in equity-free capital plus a year of technical assistance. The selected innovators all apply AI and data science to improve maternal and reproductive health. They are: DawaMom by Dawa Health (Zambia), HLlama by Umbaji (Togo), Feel by Luna (Tunisia), YouthShield by Kairos (Burkina Faso), and Dotoh (Benin), which provides low-bandwidth tele-consultations and AI-enabled messaging for underserved women and adolescents.
Rivia Clinics, a Ghanaian healthtech startup, raised $200,000 from Village Capital through the Africa Ecosystem Catalysts Facility, a $4 million pilot fund backed by the Dutch Entrepreneurial Development Bank and the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. The funding will expand its membership-based primary care model, which connects individuals and employers to a network of virtual and in-person clinics and has reached over 50,000 patients since launching in 2024.
New solutions launched to address gaps in nutrition and emergency care
PushNcare, a Cameroonian healthtech startup, launched a B2B enterprise module on its nutrition-focused platform for conducting workforce and population health audits. PushNcare is an AI-powered digital health platform enabling dietitians and nutritionists to deliver personalized and culturally-aware nutritional care across Africa. Its proprietary Nutrition OS tool maps the nutritional properties of over 60,000 traditional African foods, enabling dietitians to build clinically sound meal plans around what patients actually eat — rather than defaulting to Western dietary frameworks. The startup is currently operational in Cameroon and Nigeria, with plans to expand to Ghana, Rwanda, and South Africa.
Senegalese startup Jamora Technologie launched Sendon, a platform that connects blood donors with hospitals in real time through targeted alerts based on blood type and location, reducing reliance on the informal social media calls that currently characterize emergency donation drives. Beyond acute response, the platform maintains a structured, regularly updated donor database to help healthcare providers anticipate demand and organize donation campaigns.
A new $200 million Gates Foundation and Anthropic partnership to drive access to AI tools in health
The Gates Foundation and Anthropic announced a multi-year partnership committing $200 million over 4 years in grants, API credits, and technical support to develop AI tools across sectors, including health, with an explicit focus on low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In health, early applications will target childhood vaccines, cervical cancer, and preeclampsia, while parallel efforts will modernize the disease surveillance data systems that public health leaders rely on for decision-making. The partnership is also focused on driving equitable access to AI through investments in shared public goods, such as datasets, benchmarks, and infrastructure, potentially ensuring AI tools are more accessible in LMICs.
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