13 Social Ventures Woo Investors and Philanthropists in Nairobi

Today, 13 social enterprises from across Africa put their best feet forward in Nairobi, hoping to attract investor and donor money to help them scale their enterprises and their work in improving health outcomes for women and children.

The entrepreneurs presented at the GE healthymagination & Miller Center Mother and Child Program Investor Showcase. The program largely replicates the Miller Center’s Global Social Benefit Institute program, which it has been conducting in Silicon Valley for 15 years. GE provided funding to make the program possible in Kenya. It has been so successful that GE has committed to fund the program again.

The month’s long program features a focused curriculum to help the entrepreneurs generate more self-sustaining revenue sources and includes counsel from accomplished mentors. The program culminates in today’s investor presentations, with each entrepreneur getting six minutes on stage to hook the investors’ interest.

United Nations Coordinator for Kenya, Siddarth Chatterjee, spoke about collaboration between the public and private sectors to create a leapfrogging of maternal and child healthcare. Sid highlighted women’s issues, including female genital mutilation, child marriage and gender-based violence. He noted, “Kenya’s economy will grow when the woman is allowed to achieve her full potential and can plan her own family.” He congratulated the Miller Center and GE for assembling such an impressive cohort of entrepreneurs.

The following is a summary of each of the 14 social enterprises who pitched from the day’s program:

Access Afya, Melissa Menke, Founder and CEO:

Access Afya creates a model for comprehensive primary care in wellness in Nairobi’s informal settlements. Our tiered approach includes fixed community microclinics as anchors that have authentic medication, emergency response capacity point-of-care lab capabilities, immunization family planning, and qualified clinicians with novel field programs that provide care through field-based programs to community institutions like schools, factories and churches.

Ayzh, Zubaida Bai, Founder and CEO:

Ayzh is transforming access to products through carefully designed kit-styled interventions around reproductive, maternal, pediatric, and adolescent health needs. These products help the care providers and beneficiaries with improved health outcomes.

Health Builders International, Tyler Nelson, Executive Director:

Health Builders (HB) is dedicated to addressing the fundamental challenges that prevent universal access to quality primary health care services in Rwanda: inefficient management systems, inadequate or nonexistent health infrastructure, and outdated technology. Through partnerships with local and national governments, HB mentors health care providers to build strong management systems; constructs comprehensive primary health centers where access is limited; and equips health centers system strengthening technology that supports efficient and sustainable operations. This approach results in health centers with the knowledge, resources, and capacity to thrive as independent enterprises, ensuring more people receive higher quality care in Rwanda.

Health-E-Net Limited, Pratap Kumar, CEO:

Health-E-Net is a social enterprise in Kenya providing innovative solutions to support healthcare delivery in low resource settings. PaperEMR is a unique system to generate electronic medical records directly from paper. It allows clinicians to document cases easily on paper, while interacting with the patient. Data entered on paper can be automatically extracted in digital form, analyzed, and used to improve quality of care. The Gabriel application is an innovative, low-cost tele-consultations platform that allows local healthcare providers to easily create and share digital medical information. Experts from a global volunteer network engage with local healthcare providers, supporting healthcare in the community and improving the efficiency of referral when needed.

Hewa Tele Ltd., Dr. Bernard Olayo, Executive Chairman:

Hewa Tele provides medical oxygen that is needed in medical and surgical situations. Medical oxygen has been listed as an essential drug for the last three decades by the World Health Organization. Unfortunately, many patients still do not receive this vital drug. Oxygen can reduce the chances of a child dying from pneumonia by at least 35 percent when given with antibiotics.

LifeNet International, Stefanie Weiland, Executive Director:

LifeNet International provides a bundle of services for primarily rural and faith-based health centers that improves the quality of clinical care and sustainability as businesses. This includes dedicated mentors to train all staff on-site in updated, life-saving techniques and efficient financial and operational management practices, door-to-door medicine delivery, and access to resources and equipment. In addition, LifeNet provides monitoring of health center performance with regular evaluation and quality assurance. By strengthening local capacity in every link of the healthcare delivery chain, LN is transforming primary care for Africa’s poor.

Lwala Community Alliance, Julius Mbeya, Managing Director:

Lwala Community Alliance is a community-led innovator, tackling the multidimensional drivers of poor health. Founded by Kenyans, Lwala ensures that beneficiaries plan, implement, and evaluate all programs. At the core of our model is a cadre of former traditional midwives whom we train, pay, and supervise to track, support, and refer every pregnant women and child under five. Simultaneously, Lwala works with primary care facilities and the communities they serve to provide quality, patient-centered care. Through bringing communities closer to health providers, Lwala has a driven a 97 percent facility delivery rate and 300 percent increase in contraceptive uptake.

Kids at play at Nurture Africa in Uganda

Nurture Africa, Brian Iredale, Co-founder and CEO:

After 17 years of operation, our holistic and community-centered model, providing healthcare, vocational education, and sustainable livelihood loans has proven that offering these services under “one roof” successfully empowers vulnerable families to increase their standard of living. Our new enhanced model shifts from the traditional philanthropic approach to a self-sustainable paradigm. Accessing multiple community services locally benefits affluent residents who will support and subsidize the operations to more vulnerable families.

Outreach Medical Services, Nigeria Ltd., Dr. Efunbo Dosekun, CEO:

Outreach Medical Services is a health service acute care provider for babies and children and professional development company, leapfrogging and leveraging on technology in clinical applications, training and health service operation management. Solutions provided are integrated, high impact and scalable, strengthening our acute care system horizontally and having its influence on saving lives of ill babies and children and preventing chronic disability together with increasing the human capacity of healthcare workers in Nigeria. In our bid to deliver affordable, quality and safe care, there has been need for continuous refinement and modification in our product creation and service deliver responding to the multiple challenges in our internal and external environment in Nigeria.

PurpleSource Healthcare, Femi Sunmonu, Co-founder and CEO:

PurpleSource Healthcare strengthens clinical processes through evidence-based approaches to care and provide quality certification in partnership with standard setting bodies. The enterprise aggregates its primary healthcare centers into one integrated network, centralize management functions and share scarce resources across the network. PurpleSource Healthcare leverages technology for healthcare analytics, population management and to aid responsive performance management of the network.

The Shanti Uganda Society, Natalie Angell-Besseling, Founder and Executive Director:

Shanti Uganda provides a unique model of care where skilled midwives incorporate traditional knowledge and modern best practices. Shanti Uganda’s Birth House is a collaborative-care maternity center staffed by Ugandan midwives and traditional birth attendants that provide mother-centered care throughout pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. Shanti Uganda’s expansion plans include the development of a Midwifery Training School, which will offer a 2.5 year certification program to students throughout East Africa with both local & international faculty.

Telemed Medical Services/helloDoctor, Dr. Yohans Wodaje Emiru, Founder & CEO:

Telemed’s helloDoctor platform provides reliable and affordable access to health care. Through teleconsultations, we provide chronic disease follow-up and support to underserved people living in emerging markets by leveraging proven technologies and its unique partnerships.

Village HopeCore International, Dr. Kajira K. Mugambi, CEO and Founder:

Village HopeCore International (HopeCore) is dedicated to fostering integrated social and economic development in rural communities in Kenya and Africa. HopeCore enables and empowers members of rural Kenyan communities by providing health education and interventions, and microloans, business education and skills based training. We offer clinical curative services, preventative health information, and educational lectures to women and children to improve health outcomes in the community.

Jason Spindler, Managing Director of I-Dev International, an investment banking firm serving the developing world with an office in Nairobi, attended the event and reflected on what he saw. He said, “A majority [of the for-profit companies that presented] are ready for angel investment. Thirty to 50 percent are ready for later seed investment. Two or three could be acquisition targets.”

He noted that the capital markets in Africa are spotty, flush in some spots and thin in others. “Clean energy has a lot of capital going into it. Hundreds of millions more will be going in over the next few years.” On the other hand, tech ventures are struggling to access startup capital.

He is excited about Kenya’s prospects. “Nairobi is one of the best start up ecosystems in the world, including San Francisco. We’re building a car and you can’t drive it until you put the wheels on and the engine in. Kenya’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is ready to drive.”

This week, I’m traveling in Africa as a guest of Santa Clara University’s Miller Center for Social Entrepreneurship’s Executive Director Thane Kreiner and namesakes Karen and Jeff Miller. Read all my reports.

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