Villgro Africa has celebrated its 5th anniversary as they go beyond boundaries to the rest of Africa, committed to tackling some of Africa’s health challenges by supporting social entrepreneurs with homegrown solutions.
The last five years since inception, working through the social enterprises, Villgro Africa has enabled access to healthcare to those at the bottom of the pyramid. They have successfully supported 21 enterprises, provided seed funding of $1 million which has enabled the enterprises to generate revenues of $2.2 million, garnering $10 million in foreign direct investment that has resulted in jobs creation and impacting of 2 million lives.
According to Villgro’s co-founder, Dr. Robert Karanja “Africa’s lion economies, though among the fastest growing economies in the world, are not lifting the masses out of poverty.” It is estimated that by 2023, Africa’s share of the world’s poverty stricken will rise from 60% in 2016 to over 80%. It is therefore important for governments and development actors to understand how we can “spring” the poverty-disease trap and reverse this social dynamic. Eleven percent of Africans’ experience catastrophic spending for health care every year, while as many as 38 percent delay or forgo health care due to high costs.
Nekesa Were of @AfriLabs – It is impossible to have an impact if you’re doing things individually. The timing of Villgro Africa is well placed at a time when ecosystems across the continent are looking to partner for impact. #VillgroKE_Rebrands #VillgroAfrica #5YearsofImpact pic.twitter.com/NRNi1xBU60— Villgro Africa (@VillgroAfrica) October 29, 2020
As part of the fight against the Covid19 pandemic, Villgro funded 11 innovative startups that have made significant contributions to Kenya’s health system resilience.
One of these companies, Rescue (a Villgro Kenya grantee), joined hands with Bolt, Ministry of Health, University of Nairobi, AMREF, Nairobi County, and several other partners to deploy the “Wheels For Life” initiative to help pregnant mothers quickly seek help and access free emergency transport to hospitals, especially during dusk to dawn curfew hours.
There are partners who have supported Villgro’s journey, “We invest in local partners like Villgro to support the ecosystem believing that invention-based, a small and growing business can fill the gap by advancing locally developed solutions to health, agriculture and the environment”, says Carol Dahl, Executive Director, the Lemelson Foundation.
“We value our partnership with Villgro because we have been impressed by Villgro’s ability to identify a successful range of compelling entrepreneurs to address some of the social-economical challenges and build a highly effective incubator for healthcare-related businesses”, says Nicholas Colloff, Director, Argidius Foundation.
Villgro is now boldly scaling into Africa, according to Mr Wilfred Njagi, CEO and Co-Founder of Villgro, “As we look into the future, the tailwinds are now on our side to scale our impact across the African continent. In the next 5 years, we will be scaling deep, scaling broad and scaling equitably.
Part of scaling broad will be taking on a bold initiative to collaborate with local and regional hubs in joint incubation initiatives while scaling wide will be deepening the level of support offered to enterprises.
While most of Villgro’s experience has been in increasing equitable access to health care especially to the most vulnerable groups, Villgro is not only going beyond geographical boundaries but will also venture to other aligned life sciences sectors and in supporting innovations and entrepreneurs in areas such as food security and water sanitation in line with SDG 2 and SDG 6.”
Villgro Africa is an early stage business incubator and impact investor that seeks to support startups with a global health impact in the African region. Working at the interface of science and industry, Villgro Africa is pioneering social entrepreneurship and impact investment in healthcare and life sciences in Africa.
The Villgro Africa team has over 30 years in R&D/Academia and entrepreneurship in the region that is relevant to healthcare and life sciences. They work with entrepreneurs to develop and deliver/implement innovative solutions through a business model approach. This includes offering the funding, technical assistance, go to market and investment readiness support.
