Health Entrepreneurship Challenge 2023

The goal of the Health Entrepreneurship Challenge is to enable the creation of ventures with positive health outcomes in Africa. We’re calling on African entrepreneurs to submit their venture ideas or solutions focused on health innovation

Teams that meet the eligibility criteria will be selected for participation in a comprehensive training and mentorship program, with up to $25,000 CAD in funding for each top performing venture selected. Top teams will also travel to Toronto, Canada for up to 4-months with all costs covered, to learn and expand their entrepreneurship network. This Challenge is facilitated by the African Impact Initiative and experts from University of Toronto Entrepreneurship (Health Innovation Hub (H2i), The Bridge, and I-Cube). All registrants will have access to e-Learning resources and community, to take their ventures to market. Please register here if interested before April 15th.

The African Higher Education Health Collaborative together with the Mastercard Foundation is carrying out the 2023 Health Entrepreneurship Challenge. The collaborative includes:

• African Leadership University

• Ashesi University

• Addis Ababa University

• African Institute for Mathematical Sciences

WHAT CAN YOU EXPECT

ELIGIBILITY

• Affiliation with the African Higher Education Health Collaborative.

• Ideas or solutions focused on improving positive HEALTH outcomes.

• A desire to work on building the solution with full time commitment from the team.

SELECTION CRITERIA

• Your idea should address an identified problem/challenge in your country, by providing a comprehensive solution through a clearly defined job to be done.

• Preference will be given to solutions that drive social impact, by increasing adoption, accessibility or affordability.

• Preference will be given to innovative business models that are scalable & sustainable.

HOW FUNDED VENTURES WILL BE SELECTED

Every eligible team that registers will be onboarded to our virtual platform to complete the first phase called pre-incubation. This begins in May 2023, and provides capacity building to validate your idea/solution and how to build it in a scalable way. 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 up to 4 months, to learn from Canada’s leading entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem as they build their venture.