Villgro Africa

Villgro Africa is a social enterprise incubator based in Kenya that supports early-stage startups focused on creating positive social and environmental impact. They invest in and provide strategic support to companies in health, agriculture, energy, education, and financial inclusion.

Their mission is to help entrepreneurs turn innovative ideas into successful businesses. Villgro Africa offers a range of support services, including seed funding, mentorship, and business development assistance.

By working with startups at the forefront of social innovation, Villgro Africa is building a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable future for Africa.

Official website: https://villgroafrica.org

AI4GH project

The Artificial Intelligence for Health in Africa (AI4H Africa) program which is part of the AI4GH project is a collaboration between Villgro Africa, IDRC, AI4D, Africa Oxford Initiative, Johnson & Johnson, Impact Ventures, NVIDIA and I-DAIR to support innovations, policy research, and skills to spur responsible AI development in Africa

These partners have come together with the aim of supporting health-focused, African-led AI innovations that will be instrumental in catalyzing the emerging ecosystem towards responsible development of technology, while strengthening the capacity of African innovators with regards to scaling their impact and improving health outcomes. As part of the initiative, selected innovators will receive funding, focused training and technical support, investor readiness combined within the acceleration program. This has been structured to support these entrepreneurial innovators to develop their ventures with a goal of becoming commercially viable and impactful.

Aims:

These partners have come together with the aim of uncovering African AI-enabled healthcare solutions and innovations that will be instrumental in catalyzing the emerging ecosystem towards responsible development of technology while strengthening the capacity of African innovators with regards to scaling their impact and improving development outcomes.

Objective:

As part of the initiative, beneficiaries will receive funding and participate in an innovation boot camp and an acceleration program. These have been organized to support the selected entrepreneurial AI practitioners to develop innovative and commercially viable products and services. AI4H Africa will support companies who bring affordable, high-quality, AI-enabled health products closer to where patients are.

Rology

“Rology Connect” offers a zero-setup cost, an end-to-end, high-quality, and integrated teleradiology solution to the diagnostic imaging facilities in the MEA region, especially in the underserved healthcare communities and distant geographical areas.

More information find it here.

Intixel

A web-based CAD software system for breast cancer detection in screening mammography. The solution seamlessly integrates with the PACS system in hospitals, supply initial diagnosis markups and draft reports to the image data from the imaging modality.

More information find it here.

Neural Labs Africa

Using Deep Learning and Computer Vision technology to enhance medical images for radiologists and hospitals in real time to identify diseases such as Pneumonia, TB, and lung cancer. By this, the solution empowers doctors to aid accurate diagnoses.

More information find it here.

Sophie Bot

Sophie Bot is an artificial intelligence persona to answer users' questions on sexual health. Think of her as "Siri for sexual health". We take great care to feed her with curated verified information from our partner/investor UNFPA Kenya.

More information find it here.

Palindrome Data

Predictive/analytic AI models that facilitate triage of HIV patients who need more support and those who need less intensive support. The algorithms do this by identifying characteristics of patients that are likely to cause adverse health outcomes.

More information find it here.

Wekebere

Using machine learning, the innovation allows for improved healthcare delivery by enhancing early detection of foetal well-being, thus increasing mother and infant safety, preventing maternal and neonatal morbidities, and lowering healthcare costs.

More information find it here.

Vectorgram Health

Early diagnosis of breast Cancer using an AI model, Deep Neural Networks trained on augmented Mammography datasets to execute scalable Computer Vision inference accessible anywhere in the world on an online platform .

More information find it here.

Diagnosoft

Accurate (93%), fast African focused AI powered diagnostic tool that assists radiologists in accurate diagnosis, reducing the turnaround time, automating and streamlining workflow. It’s tested using African data to reduce biasness on the African population.

More information find it here.

The Pathology Network

Connecting doctors, hospitals and the patients they serve to a global network of pathologists. Leveraging technology to enable doctors to order patient’s tests, tests samples are picked, processing arranged, and the samples distributed to a network of pathologists for reporting.

More information find it here.

Saratani AI

A more flexible and user-friendly cervical cancer diagnostic device made using Deep-learning techniques, trained with quite a large cervical PAP smear cytological image with plans of making it offline. The model can be replicated to diagnose other forms of cancer.

More information find it here.

Rob Beyer

As Villgro Africa’s Co-Founder and Executive Chairman, Rob brings a unique combination of seasoned experience in business, social entrepreneurship, education and technology. He is a visionary leader who has lived in Kenya for almost 20 years and is familiar with the unique challenges that entrepreneurs face when it comes to sustainability and scaling within the African context.

Deogratias Mzurikwao

Deogratias has received his Ph.D. from the University of Kent on the Applications of Artificial Intelligence. He previously did his master's in AI at Tianjin University, in China. Deogratias has been researching and practising machine learning, deep learning, image and voice signal processing which are the core elements of artificial intelligence since 2012. During his time in China, he also worked for GTA, a data analytics company based in Shenzhen, China. The company recruited him while he was still doing his master’s degree. While in China, Deogratias teamed up to form a team that became second runners in the international innovation competition for automation and UAV in 2014. In 2019, he was among the 15 AI researchers who received the IEEE Outstanding Young Investigator Research Visit award to Sapienza University, Italy. His research interests are in the application of deep learning, machine learning, data analysis, and including explainable AI systems, virtual and augmented reality. He has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals including Nature and IEEE. Some of his published work has featured in global media houses including Forbes and the BBC. Deogratias has conducted AI based consultation works for the UNDP and UNICEF. Deogratias has received a grant from Google to implement one of his AI projects, recently awarded a second round of funding from Google for the same project.

Amadi Growman

Amadi Growman has over 2 years of experience working with startups. At Villgro Africa, he provides analytical and technical skills for conducting diligence and selection of innovative startups for incubation across Africa. He also oversees business growth, investor readiness and go-to-market strategy support for early-stage companies. His additional roles include supporting consulting projects, providing advice on go-to-market strategies, commercialisation plans and helping clients understand the African market. His ultimate goal is to use his data science skills to help innovative startups solve Africa's toughest problems and positively impact the people living in low-resource settings on the continent. He has experience in data analysis, qualitative and quantitative research and development of the ecosystem. He holds a B.Sc. Actuarial Science from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT).