Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and sponsored, among others, by the World Health Organization (WHO), the i3 (Investing in Innovation in Africa) program was born as a result of a report by Salient and Southbridge A&I that identified flaws in the HealthTech sector. They are essentially linked to financial resources, decision making, and support to health ecosystem, News ES Euro reports.
Jean-Baptiste Kouatche, a senior consultant at Southbridge and a doctor of pharmacy, explains that this is an unprecedented pan-African program whose main objective is to improve public health indicators by supporting 30 startups with a systematic grant of $50,000 , but also preparing them to receive investment as well as connecting these different start-ups with financial backers, as well as with local and international institutions and industry players. At the moment, the payment of the subsidies to the different startups is in progress.
According to Jean-Baptiste Kouatche, the program is structured around three levels: first, the Steering Committee made up of the Gates Foundation and various sponsors of the program, responsible for making decisions. Then, Southbridge and Salient coordinate and align between startups, accelerators, as well as the committee in charge of making decisions. And finally the startups revealed by the program and followed by four continental reference accelerators (including Impact Lab for North and Francophone Africa).