The Norrsken Foundation is a Swedish non-profit, non-religious and non-partisan foundation that supports and invests in entrepreneurs that have a positive impact on society by working with the world’s greatest challenges, such as poverty, famine, environmental issues, mental health, and discrimination. They run an award-winning hub and co-working space in Stockholm and are now expanding to Kigali.
Norrsken East Africa is located on the old premises of the Ecole Belge in Kigali and is set to offer co-working space to over 1,000 entrepreneurs. By putting entrepreneurs, creatives, and corporates in the same place, Norrsken aspires to facilitate business growth and networking for East Africa’s top startups.
The HealthTech Hub Challenge, which kicked off on 20th October 2021, is a competition aimed at identifying up to 30 of the most promising startups in Africa working in cardiovascular health, breast cancer, and virtual care, who will all win a full year subsidy to sit at The HealthTech Hub (HT Hub) Africa.
The HealthTech Hub Africa is a new HealthTech accelerator based in Kigali, Rwanda. Its mission is to help governments and startups collaborate on technology-enabled innovations that strengthen health systems in Africa. By doing so, it aims to support local authorities to tackle the largest health challenges in low-income and underserved populations.
They will also get to participate in the 2022 HealthTech Innovation Program, a program that includes capability-building opportunities, partner match-making with the public and private sectors, and mentorship and opportunities to test and validate their solutions in the public health system.
The overall winner and two runner-up startups will each receive the financial support required to further develop their solutions. The first-place winner will receive US$ 30,000, the second will receive US$ 20,000 and the third-place winner will receive US$ 5,000.
The HealthTech Hub Africa will be launched at a prestigious event in Kigali on December 2nd, 2021. The launch will feature the winners of the HealthTech Hub Challenge together with the Novartis Foundation, Norrsken East Africa, and other partners.
According to Pascal Murasira, the Managing Director of Norrsken East Africa, the hub is designed to accelerate the development of innovative solutions not only beneficial for Rwanda but also the region as well.
“We are so excited to be launching the HealthTech Hub challenge and hosting the HealthTech Hub Africa at the Norrsken Kigali House. It will be the first space where HealthTech startups can work together and collaborate, which will revolutionize the industry by cutting down the cost of care and democratizing access to quality care in the region,” he said.
The Novartis Foundation focuses on advancing data and Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven approaches to population health – transforming health systems from being reactive to proactive, predictive, and preventative. All of its initiatives are co-created, locally owned, data-driven, and aim to narrow health inequities while improving health outcomes for all.
Application process
The HT Hub Challenge is open to startups with less than US$ 2 million in prior funding and with solutions with evidence of validation and positive impact in the domains of breast cancer, cardiovascular health, and/or virtual care. Teams must have a minimum of two people, and those with a more positive gender balance will be prioritized. Applicants will need to apply through the HealthTech Hub Africa website at: https://www.norrsken.org/hthubafrica
What you should know about HealthTech Hub Africa?
The HealthTech Hub Africa is a new HealthTech accelerator based in Kigali, Rwanda. Its mission is to help governments and startups collaborate on technology-enabled innovations that strengthen health systems in Africa. By doing so, it aims to support local authorities to tackle the largest health challenges in low-income and underserved populations.
The hub is located at the Norrsken East Africa House in Kigali, Rwanda, and will host up to 30 startups. These startups will have access to a program that includes capability-building opportunities, partner match-making with the public and private sectors, and mentorship and opportunities to test and validate their solutions in the public health system. The first cohort of startups will be those involved in the fight against cardiovascular diseases and breast cancer, and in developing virtual health and care solutions.
The Novartis Foundation founded the hub in partnership with Norrsken East Africa.
The evolution of the HealthTech Hub Africa
In early 2020, the Novartis Foundation collaborated with the Harvard Global Health Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other organizations to plan a Data Science & AI Summit in Kigali, Rwanda with the aim of inspiring, teaching, and connecting innovators in the HealthTech community within Africa.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the planned physical event turned into a series of webinars and publications that explored the role of artificial intelligence in the COVID-19 response in low-resource settings. In 2021, this initiative scaled up into the HealthTech Dialogue Hub, which aims to support the exchange of technology-enabled innovations that strengthen health systems in low-and middle-income settings. Establishing a health-focused tech hub in Africa to deliver on these objectives was a logical next step.
Mission
The HealthTech Hub Africa mission is to support technology innovations that are tackling public health system challenges in Africa. The hub plans to host up to 30 startups, initially from East Africa. It will help them refine, test, validate and scale up their solutions in their country, in Africa, and possibly even beyond.
It also aims to strengthen the local HealthTech network by creating more opportunities for collaboration and exchange between policymakers and innovators who are working to use these breakthrough technologies to overcome major population health challenges. African HealthTech innovations from low-and middle-income countries may have the potential to ‘leapfrog’ high-income country health systems, where barriers to innovation are often higher.
Official launch
The HealthTech Hub Africa will be launched at a prestigious event in Kigali on December 2nd, 2021. The launch will feature the winners of the HealthTech Hub Challenge together with the Novartis Foundation, Norrsken East Africa, and other partners.
The Novartis Foundation focuses on advancing data and Artificial intelligence (AI)-driven approaches to population health – transforming health systems from being reactive to proactive, predictive, and preventative. All of its initiatives are co-created, locally owned, data-driven, and aim to narrow health inequities while improving health outcomes for all.
More about the Norrsken Foundation
Norrsken Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 2016 by the co-founder of Klarna, Niklas Adalberth, with the aim of helping entrepreneurs solve some of the world’s most pressing challenges. Norrsken is non-religious and non-political — and has a strong belief in effective altruism.
The Foundation runs the award-winning hub Norrsken House in Stockholm, Sweden, and in 2021 Norrsken is opening Africa’s biggest hub for entrepreneurs in Kigali, Rwanda. The Foundation successfully incubated Norrsken VC – a €100 million impact VC fund investing in the best entrepreneurs that solve societal issues using technology.
Norrsken East Africa is supporting this initiative by hosting the HealthTech Hub in their House, located in Kigali, Rwanda. Here, the top startups will have a physical space to work alongside other leading health tech entrepreneurs and will have access to other opportunities provided by other supporting partners.
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