Seven growth-stage African startups operating in the pharmacy sector have been selected to receive up to $225,000 each in grant funding through the third cohort of Investing in Innovation (i3) — an initiative designed to help African healthtech startups commercialise and scale their solutions.
Supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MSD, Cencora, Endless Foundation, HELP Logistics, Sanofi’s Global Health Unit, and Chemonics, the programme provides startups with access to potential partners and key healthcare decision-makers across the continent.
Although the initiative supported 60 startups across its first two cohorts, it has since narrowed its focus. This shift is partly due to an executive order by U.S. President Donald Trump, which affected foreign aid programs, and partly a strategic decision to focus on a smaller number of innovators for a longer, more intensive support period.
The seven selected startups — Chefaa, Dawa Mkononi, Meditect, mPharma, myDawa, RxAll, and Sproxil — hail from various regions across Africa.
The reduction in aid from USAID, which had previously backed many healthcare efforts in Africa, has had a significant impact. However, Dr. Priya Agrawal, Vice President of International Health Equity and Partnerships at MSD, emphasises the importance of continuing support.
“For health in Africa, we see entrepreneurs as key to advancing equitable and sustainable healthcare access. Through i3, we drive innovation in pharmacy services, expand access to medicines and vaccines for patients across Africa, and build more resilient health systems.”
For Meditect, a startup improving last-mile access and drug visibility in Côte d’Ivoire, being chosen is both a validation of its mission and an opportunity for regional expansion into Chad, Gabon, and Guinea.
“The network and exposure, especially being connected with decision-makers and like-minded innovators across Africa, are invaluable,” Arnaud Pourredon, CEO & Co-Founder, told Techpoint Africa. “As a startup in Francophone Africa, often isolated from broader ecosystems, this has helped us benchmark, share best practices, and scale smarter.”
Similarly, MyDAWA, a Kenyan startup active in Kenya and Uganda, views its inclusion as crucial to its plans to expand further into Uganda and Rwanda. So far, the company has facilitated more than 150,000 telehealth consultations and over 1.5 million transactions.
Meanwhile, mPharma, a more established player in African healthcare that raised a Series D round in 2022, was also included in the cohort. This underscores the programme’s broader goals beyond just financial support.
As i3 explains, “Innovations at all stages often struggle to build the large-scale vendor and payer relationships needed to scale their impact sustainably. Simultaneously, multinationals and private foundations also struggle to connect to leading startups. Facilitating these connections is a core pillar of i3’s value proposition, and we are hopeful targeted support can help accelerate mPharma’s impact and help i3’s sponsors improve progress against their strategic goals.”
