Founders Factory Africa has partnered with South African healthcare company Netcare to select 35 African startups in the healtcare sector for an acceleration and incubation program.
This partnership involves an undisclosed amount by Netcare in Founder’s Factory Africa, or FFA.
The startups will receive a £30,00 cash investment (≈$38,000) and £220,000 in support services from Founders Factory Africa while Incubator health-tech ventures will receive £60K cash and £100K toward support.
Founders Factory Africa and Netcare will share a 5 to 10 percent equity stake in any startup accepted into the program.
According to FFA CEO Roo Rogers in a discussion with TechCrunch, FFA will accelerate 5 startups a year and incubate 2.
To apply for the program. click here.
Founders Factory Africa was formed in 2018 as an extension of Founders Factory in London founded by Henry Lane Fox in 2015. The accelerator has so far graduated 122 startups.
Criteria for the accelerator startups include that they have a healthcare focus, be post-revenue, and have a Pan-African scope.
This is Netcare’s first big foray into tech funding and its interest in partnering with Founders Factory Africa to support startups comes down to multiplying healthcare solutions across the continent and shaking up the healthcare industry, according to CEO, Dr. Richard Friedland.
Netcare has 11,000 hospital beds, across 54 hospitals, and 18 primary care centers, making it South Africa’s largest private hospital network,
“The way we deliver healthcare in South Africa, Africa, and perhaps internationally…is in many cases broken,” he said, adding there’s a crisis of affordability and access to healthcare in Africa.
“I believe healthcare is ripe for disruption and innovation and that couldn’t be more true than it is here in South Africa and the rest of the continent,” Friedland said.
Founders Factory Africa invested into its first five fintech startup businesses in Africa in April 2019.
