Charis Chrisna
TechInAfrica – Healthtech, or digital health, refers to a term where technology is mainly used to provide a better medical environment for patients and experts alike. Countless fields related to healthcare are already implementing the technology to create a more sustainable sector—namely in pharmaceuticals, insurance, hospitals, as well as various operational procedures like surgery and transplantation. All in all, healthtech oversees the potential connection for both technology and healthcare to improve the life expectancy of people in general. In rapidly-growing countries of Africa where demand is at its strongest, healthtech also serves as a promising market for emerging startups.
To manifest such objective, Founders Factory Africa (FFA) partners up with Netcare—a healthcare firm based in South Africa—to enroll 35 African healthtech startups on their acceleration program; the one similar to Google’s and Bidaya, in which we’ve covered it in our story earlier last month.
FFA, which was launched back in 2018, has incubated over 120 startups in total since then. This year, the organization opens the application for yet another class of businesses operating in the health sector—after selecting the first five fintech startups to enroll in a similar program earlier in April 2019. This movement was influenced by the lack of sustainable and affordable healthcare across Africa for its citizens, and how it would be a win-win solution for both startups and the society if technology were to be applied in this staggering problem. Not just locally as a nation, but regionally as a continent.
Of course, such startups operating in the field of medics also have their own hindrances.
For one, the lack of investors—which could offer financial support for new corporations—could significantly hold back their development. In other words, even if the market and the demands continue to grow, referred startups can only grow so far without being backed up by potential stockholders. This was also one of the reasons why FFA and Netcare agreed to have healthtech startups learn under their wings.
For more info about the program’s application, eligible requirements, and registration period, simply head over to their website by clicking here. Or, you can go straight away and fill up the application form.
Source: itnewsafrica.com
