Friday evening 29th November was another milestone–we kicked off Lafiya Innovators, our health program in West Africa!

Lafiya Innovators is a startup incubation program to accelerate early to mid-stage startups addressing challenges around health and determinants of health in lower and middle-income countries. Joining a 3-country live stream with our partners Impact Hub Dakar (Senegal) and Impact Hub Accra (Ghana), we announced the selected startups. And the winners are…

Gricd: offers active battery-powered, mobile cooling boxes that provide real-time visibility during the storage and transportation of temperature sensitive medication to ensure potency of medication on arrival at the last mile.

Home Mobile Nurse: aims to solve the problem people face of accessing health care facilities in the country by bringing care to patients’ homes. Their services also increase employment opportunities for nurses.

Verifie: offers screening and doctor’s consultation for sexually transmitted infections (STIs) through confidential and convenient ways such as home calls, and convenient booking and consultation through an app which also allows online payments; targeting young people.

NoWelli: offers healthy and balanced meals to help fight against non-communicable diseases.

SenVitale: e-health startup providing a health passport with portable QR codes which allow a quick scan to reveal personal medical files in local languages that can be accessed anywhere and instantly.

Picaaré: creating a system to bring pharmacists and patients closer together in order to eradicate street drugs.

Congratulations to all!

It was exciting to be on a live video-call with Africa—y’know, as you do—hearing from the winners of the program. I very much look forward to meeting them in March when they all come to Switzerland for an immersion week.

Speaking of, we’re brainstorming ways in which we can make their time here the most beneficial as possible by asking ourselves, if we were in their shoes, what would we want to get out of coming here? 

If you’re so inclined to consider that, and would like to help, get in touch wth us. Are you someone who works in health? Do you have some helpful connections you’d like to offer the teams? We want to ensure that what they learn during the next six months, and what they take away from Switzerland after their visit, sustains their business. If you can help, we’d love to chat.

Thanks to Soup and Chill for the delicious catering, and for all who braved the rainy weather to join us. See you next time!

Carrie Aikman