A healthtech investor's view on healthcare in Africa in the next 10 years.

If you’re building or investing for impact with underserved communities in Africa, this episode is for you.

Rowena Luk has walked the talk. She is the ‘OG’ of creating visibility on digital health in Africa, and has built and scaled for impact in over 40 countries on the continent, and has now scaled her own impact to support founders through her VC firm Africa Health Ventures.

This episode covers so much, especially the challenges that Africa faces through development aid funding cuts.

Rowena is bullish about where healthcare in Africa can get to, and makes a measured and compelling case for why this is a real moment to turn crisis into opportunity, and how the right mindset from VCs can help create resilient businesses that can scale and realize real health outcomes.

I’ve often been vocal and skeptical about how hyper-fixated our industry is on financial aspects of value, and we discussed this at length.

Rowena definitely altered my perspective.

My highlights:

• This is Africa’s moment. Rowena’s case for investing and the hard metrics business case is pretty compelling.
• It is not always the case that VCs look at the short term only. In fact, philanthropy and development funding cycles themselves are short, and good VCs have a 10+ year view and look at broader value.
• You have to meet the market where it’s at. My takeaway: Africa is not homogenous. Do the work to know what is needed right now, and build a path to where you want to get.
• If you’re a US or Europe based investor looking to invest in Africa, check your biases and leave your mental models at the door. Things are different here, in a good way.
• Useful advice for people building and investing in Africa
• The importance of investing in distribution and infrastructure. My read: You might have the perfect tool, but it’s hard to get hospitals and institutions to even know about them, let alone maintain, find payment models and have a path to adoption.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Digital Health in Africa

04:36 Rowena's Journey in Digital Health

06:43 The Investing landscape in Africa

13:19 The case for VC investment over philanthropic funding

20:47 Reimagining healthcare in Africa : building resilient health systems

26:00 Do VCs see value beyond financial returns?

29:08 Myths and Realities of Investing in Africa

36:14 Understanding Investment Biases in Africa

38:39 Identifying Market Needs and Product Diversity

40:44 Evaluating Healthcare Solutions and Market Readiness

42:22 Spotlight on Innovative Startups

46:26 Learning from Past Experiences

51:56 Key Tips for Building in Underserved Communities

54:30 Getting Started with Impact Investing

54:54 The Future of Healthcare in Africa

Additional Resources

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About Rowena

Rowena Luk is the Managing Partner of Africa Health Ventures, a pan-African seed fund investing in healthcare innovations that will dramatically improve access and quality of healthcare on the continent and around the world. She is a healthtech founder, entrepreneur, and software engineer. She has deep experience scaling healthtech in 40 countries across Africa, including products adopted at national and international scale. Previously, Rowena was a Director at Madiro, an impact fund investing in healthcare in Africa; CSO at Dimagi, a social enterprise deploying digital health to 130 countries, and founder of a digital health nonprofit in West Africa. She hosts the Africa Health Ventures Podcast and lives with her family in beautiful South Africa.