Villgro Africa: helping health startups take their ideas to market

• Author: Paul Omondi
• Position: Freelance writer

Tell us how you came to start Villgro Africa?

We took inspiration from Villgro India, one of the world’s first social enterprise incubators. In 2015, we started as a franchisee of that model, which we have internalized and customized for Africa. Since then, we have incubated more than 40 companies and invested about USD 1.2 million in grants and equity or quasi equity instruments. This has led to around USD 18 million in foreign direct investment in Kenya and the east African economy, creating jobs and local value chains. We started as Villgro Kenya, but in 2020, we rebranded and became Villgro Africa.

Tell us about your programs

Our flagship incubation program, which runs mainly in Kenya and east Africa, lasts for up for up to three years. We also engage startups in other parts of Africa in shorter programs that run from three to 12 months. For example, our artificial intelligence (AI) for Development program, which focuses on social enterprise-oriented digital innovations, targets entrepreneurs in west and southern Africa. We also partner with mission-aligned organizations like BioInnovate on a bio-economy program for scientists with a focus on social entrepreneurship. We help these innovators build appropriate business models for their solutions so they can commercialize them.

Why the health and biotech sector?

Africa makes up 17 percent of the global population, but bears around 25 percent of the global disease burden. But as a market, we are totally underserved, making up around four percent of the global pharmaceutical market. A price-sensitive market like Africa with low purchasing power is not attractive for big pharma and biopharma investors. They don’t see Africa as a viable market to invest in health innovations and solutions. The vaccine inequity we saw with COVID demonstrates this.

Our market research showed that despite its high potential [for social and economic impact] the health sector in Africa is underserved in terms of incubators and accelerators, compared to the ICT and agriculture sectors. For example, in 2014, before we began operating, there were no incubators in this sector. By late 2015, we were one of just three.

In Africa, we must start appreciating the importance of homegrown innovations to solve our unique health problems.

How can Villgro help?

In Africa, we must start appreciating the importance of homegrown innovations to solve our unique health problems. There has been a lot of investment in research and development (R&D) by institutions like the University of Nairobi, Kenya Medical Research Institute and Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization. Over the years, they have built up biotech infrastructure and a critical mass of expertise in the field. But Kenya still suffers from food insecurity and dismal health statistics because we have not been able to translate the knowledge from research into impact. That requires business processes and the know-how to commoditize new knowledge, create new value chains and...