African Impact Initiative Health Entrepreneurship Challenge 2024

The African Impact Initiative Health Entrepreneurship Challenge for 2024 is now accepting applications.Every year, AIC is held in several African nations, drawing inspiration from The Prosperity Paradox. The Pan-African Health Entrepreneurship Stream was introduced by AIC in 2022 and is currently conducted yearly with funding from the Mastercard Foundation.

Encouraging the development of businesses with beneficial health outcomes in Africa is the aim of the Health Entrepreneurship (HENT) Challenge.

Teams who fulfill the requirements will be chosen to take part in an extensive training and mentoring program, with financing of up to $25,000 CAD awarded to the best-performing ventures. The best teams will also receive full funding for a three-month trip to Toronto, Canada, where they will broaden their network of entrepreneurs and learn new things. The HENT Challenge is run by the African Impact Initiative and the University of Toronto Entrepreneurship Accelerators (Health Innovation Hub (H2i), The Bridge, and I-Cube). It is supported by the Mastercard Foundation and the African Higher Education Health Collaborative:

Eligibility:

• Young Africans (under 39) who live in the countries of the given year’s challenge.
• A desire to pursue impact-focused entrepreneurship as a means of livelihood.
• A desire to solve critical problems with technology.
• Full time commitment from the team building the venture.
• 2024 Health Entrepreneurship Stream: Pan-African ventures enabling health outcomes.
• 2024 Country Innovation Stream: Scalable ventures based in Botswana from any sector.
• 2024 Community Impact Stream: Social enterprises or nonprofits based in Botswana.

Selection Criteria:

• You should be solving a pressing problem/challenge in your country, by providing a comprehensive solution with clearly defined job(s) to be done.
• Your solution should be technology enabled in its creation and/or use.
• Preference will be given to solutions that target non-consumption, by increasing adoption, accessibility and affordability.
• Preference will be given to innovative business models that are scalable.

Benefit:

• The top performing teams from pre-incubation will be interviewed and selected to proceed into incubation. Incubation begins in July, and the selected teams will receive funding and resources up to $ 25,000 CAD each to build their ventures. This is intended to cover pre-seed funding and technology resources.
• A team member from each venture will also visit University of Toronto with travel and living costs covered for 3 months, to learn from Canada’s leading entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem as they build their venture.

Click here to apply