Ashoka/Boehringer Ingelheim Making More Health Accelerator 2023 (€50,000 grant)
Deadline: 13th of January, 2023
The Ashoka/Boehringer Ingelheim Making More Health Accelerator 2023 is now accepting applications.
The Making More Health Company Accelerator is a structured program for business expansion aimed for social entrepreneurs with ground-breaking ideas in the healthcare industry.
Since 2011, Boehringer Ingelheim, a family-owned worldwide leader in pharmaceutical research, and Ashoka, one of the largest networks of social entrepreneurs in the world, have partnered to co-create and expand the global project, Making More Health (MMH). Making More Health brings together players from the healthcare industry, such as social entrepreneurs, businesses, impact investors, governmental organizations, foundations, and regional stakeholders, among others, to participate in and work together to find solutions to improve underprivileged communities’ access to healthcare globally.
Focus Areas:
The accelerator broadly focuses on supporting social entrepreneurs with innovative solutions aimed at
advancing access to healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa. Solutions may be both in the animal or human
health field. The specific countries from which they are currently selecting participants are Kenya,
Uganda, Rwanda, Nigeria, and Ghana.
Human Health: Human healthcare care solutions of interest broadly include any innovation
that is tackling barriers to awareness, access, affordability, and availability of healthcare
services in underserved communities. Of particular interest are innovations that are
addressing non-communicable (NCDS) as the main area of focus or as a core part of a
broader intervention scope. NCDS include diabetes, hypertension, myocardial infarction,
stroke, respiratory disease, and cancers.
Animal Health: Animal Health is a critical part of healthcare, and we are interested in
supporting the most innovative solutions tackling barriers to awareness, access,
affordability, and availability of animal healthcare. Of particular interest are solutions at the
last mile as well as those tackling issues related to human-animal transmission.
Programme Phases:
The programme offers two engagement phases.
- Phase 1, called the “Pilot Phase”, runs for 12 months and focuses on supporting
entrepreneurs to:
– identify strategic challenges and/or opportunities related to the growth,
sustainability and impact of their social enterprises
– co-create and test relevant solutions. - Phase 2, called the “Scale-up Phase” also runs for 12 months and focuses on supporting
participants to scale up successful solutions from the first phase of engagement. In both
phases, participating entrepreneurs are provided with access to technical support
from Boehringer Ingelheim employees, strategic networks, financial resources, and
a platform to collaborate, learn and engage with fellow social entrepreneurs and other
ecosystem actors.
Benefits:
Knowledge Access: The programme offers participants multiple opportunities for
professional growth and development in their entrepreneurial journey. Includes in-person
and online workshops and seminars on topics about operations, systems change, replication
and transfer, social finance, among others.
Technical expertise: Participants have access to experienced employees at Boehringer
Ingelheim who volunteer their time to provide hands-on technical support across a variety
of professional discipline
Strategic networks: Accelerator participants become part of an ever growing and closely
knit community of ecosystem actors including impact investors, foundations,
philanthropists, government agencies, corporate executives, social entrepreneurs, experts
and multinational healthcare companies all committed to improving health care access for
humans and animals across Africa. Successful applicants will also be able to tap into the
newly launched Making More Health access network that will potentially leverage the expert
engagement and support between the social entrepreneurs and the Boehringer Ingelheim
employees.
Financial and Investor access support: The programme provides each participant with a
grant of 50k Euro for pilot implementation, with the possibility of additional scale up funds
at the end of a successful pilot. Participants also receive expert-led investment readiness
coaching and support before and after the programme to facilitate access to third party
investors. In addition, the program gives programme participants a platform to showcase
their innovations and engage a growing community of impact investors at MMH’s annual
investor showcase event as well as other external investor access events. Additionally,
entrants into the business accelerator community will have opportunities to apply for extra
funding via the just launched Boehringer Ingelheim Social Engagement Fund.
Business Collaboration: Where there is a timely and strategic fit between Boehringer
Ingelheim and an accelerator participant, there is the potential for a strategic business
collaboration to be formed with the promise of significant long-term benefits for both
organizations.
Eligibility:
You should apply for the programme if you have an innovative human or animal health solution that fits
the description provided above and if you meet the criteria below.
Legal Entity: Company limited by guarantee, Limited liability company, NGO
Age: At least three years of operation
Sector: Human or animal health related.
Country of operation: Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda.
Revenue: At least USD 100K in annual sales revenue.
Impact: Evidence of social impact with clearly defined impact metrics
