Exclusive: The 2000% increase in investment for women in tech must be sustained

38% of the entire investment in the space went toward financing the continent's online pharmacy solutions. Also, in the last three years, US$550 million has been invested in healthtech businesses in Africa.

Additionally, the amount of money invested in female-led healthtech solutions increased significantly.

In an exclusive interview with Business Insider Africa, Yomi Kazeem, the Engagement Manager, Salient, described a few trends to expect in Africa's Healthtech industry.

BI Africa: Is investment in Africa’s tech ecosystem due for a rebound, or is the decline in investment set to persist?

Yomi Kazeem: Our report showed there was some stability in funding for African healthtech startups in 2023, with only a 2% decline compared to steeper declines seen in other sectors. The key driver in healthtech was the occurrence of growth-stage Series B investments in a few companies, such as Helium Health, Kasha, Yodawy and MyDAWA. These growth stage investments are exciting to see as they signal that companies in the space are achieving levels of scale and maturity that investors are convinced by. However, to see increased funding in the coming years, we will need to see a mix of both growth stage funding channeled to high-impact companies that are attaining maturity as well as early-stage funding for high-potential healthtech innovators that offer unique solutions to leapfrog age-old challenges across local health systems.

BI Africa: Are there any new innovative solutions you see that could surpass online pharmacies in terms of investment shares, or is this area of healthtech going to keep dominating?

Yomi Kazeem: Online pharmacies were the best funded in 2023, largely driven by growth-stage funding for three companies. Looking to the future, the question of which sub-sector will get the most funding is linked to seeing which sector will see more maturing companies emerge. What we know for sure is that sectors like supply chain and online pharmacies which enable safer, more efficient access to healthcare products for millions of Africans appear to be of high interest to funders. However, there are also incredible market opportunities in areas like health financing given the fact that the majority of Africans likely resort to out-of-pocket payments to assess healthcare, as well as electronic medical records and information management systems given that large swathes of healthcare providers and healthcare delivery processes are paper-based and could benefit from being digitized.

BI Africa: Why was there a sudden focus on women-led healthtech solutions in 2023 and do you think this focus will expand in the coming years?

Yomi Kazeem: The >2000% increase in funding for women was an exciting finding in our report! Our analysis shows this spike was driven by large rounds for four companies - Kasha, Dawi Clinics, Chefaa and Maisha Meds. However, to sustain this momentum and ensure that progress in narrowing gender financing gaps on the continent are not reversed, funders will have to maintain intentional approaches to ensuring equitable gender-based distribution of funding. In previous years, our case study research focused on women founders in health ecosystems has suggested barriers in accessing capital, such as gender bias. It is critical for funders to design processes that ensure women founders are included and remain at the forefront of building solutions to transform African health systems.