A Personal Mission to Improve Nigeria’s Blood Supply System
For Mathew Okwoli, a software engineer from Nigeria, a tragic personal experience sparked a mission to address a significant gap in his country’s health system. After losing his aunt due to a shortage of blood at a local hospital, Okwoli investigated the causes and discovered systemic issues in blood storage and distribution across Nigeria. Many hospitals lacked the facilities to store blood properly or the ability to connect with nearby blood banks. Inspired to find a solution, Okwoli co-founded Betalife Health, an innovative health-tech startup aiming to ensure timely access to blood for hospitals and physicians.
At the core of Betalife’s offerings is a subscription-based software platform and mobile app that allows healthcare providers to access real-time information on blood bank inventories, with plans to integrate AI-driven demand prediction based on health data such as disease prevalence. This predictive capacity could optimize blood supply management in a country of over 230 million people, where the need for blood far outstrips the available donations. With Nigeria’s annual requirement of 2 million pints and a donation rate yielding only 500,000 pints, Betalife’s mission is to bridge the critical gap.
Betalife was one of nine African startups selected to participate in the African Impact Challenge, a University of Toronto business incubator program aimed at accelerating innovative solutions for African markets. During a pitch session held in Toronto in June 2024, each startup had three minutes to present their case to an audience of potential investors and strategic partners.
The African Impact Challenge and Africa Health Collaborative
The African Impact Challenge is a part of the Africa Health Collaborative, a U of T project funded by the Mastercard Foundation that offers entrepreneurs a three-month residency at U of T. This program connects African entrepreneurs with the university’s academic resources and industry connections, providing valuable insights into best practices and innovations from Toronto’s dynamic startup ecosystem. For Okwoli, the experience was transformative: “These visits have provided me with insights into industry best practices and innovations,” he said.
According to Osas Obano, the African Impact Challenge’s program manager, this initiative is designed to empower African entrepreneurs to create solutions tailored to their communities, making it a more sustainable and impactful approach than traditional foreign aid. “Instead of donating medical supplies, we support health-care startups. Each year, we go to African communities and look for innovators who are building good solutions,” Obano explained. The aim is not only to make healthcare more accessible and affordable in Africa but to eventually expand these solutions to global markets.
As Joseph Wong, a professor at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy and U of T’s vice-president for international affairs, noted, “Our contributions to this collaborative are in the service of African development, for Africans by Africans.” The program also benefits U of T by fostering student recruitment and research collaborations with African institutions, creating a mutually beneficial exchange of knowledge and resources.
Mental Health Support Designed for South African Realities
Another African Impact Challenge participant, Mahlodi Letsie, founded Bare Mind, a mental health and wellness platform tailored to address the unique challenges of mental health in South Africa. Letsie’s journey into entrepreneurship was fueled by personal struggles with anxiety and imposter syndrome during her undergraduate studies, compounded by witnessing a family member’s severe mental health challenges.
Mental health support in South Africa faces significant obstacles, including a lack of culturally relevant resources and vocabulary in African languages to describe mental distress. With Bare Mind, Letsie aims to create a comprehensive platform that combines mental health services such as stress management and mindfulness programs with resources for nutrition, fitness, and sleep. Bare Mind’s wellness tracker, powered by AI, adds a gamification element to encourage users to set and achieve their health goals.
Letsie’s entrepreneurial journey began with a leap of faith. After losing her job during the COVID-19 pandemic, she attended an executive program at Harvard Business School, where she was encouraged to pitch her idea online. Through cold outreach, she connected with a software engineer specializing in African language processing, a critical step in developing the language-sensitive platform for Bare Mind.
By 2024, Bare Mind had grown to include a team of part-time coders and secured a contract with Adcorp, a prominent South African company, to provide mental health content for its employees. Reflecting on her path, Letsie emphasized the importance of community support, particularly through the African Impact Challenge: “Being able to tap into a vibrant community of brilliant founders who are dedicated to building solutions for the benefit of Africa and the world at large has been nothing short of inspirational.”
A Growing Network of Support and Investment
The startups participating in the African Impact Challenge are given initial funding of $5,000 to $25,000, but many seek additional support, whether through grants, traditional financing, or partnerships. For instance, Bare Mind was pursuing strategic partnerships, while other startups sought conventional investment to scale their operations.
One potential investor, James Fraser, CEO of Madiro.org, attended the pitch session in June. Madiro, an impact investment fund focused on health-tech solutions, supports African startups with the potential for broad social impact. Since its establishment in 2021, Madiro has invested in numerous African health-tech companies. Fraser highlighted U of T’s Africa Health Collaborative as a “significant and important pipeline of innovation.”
U of T’s Wong reported that the Challenge program attracts hundreds of applicants each year, demonstrating the program’s rising profile. The program’s alumni have built a growing network of entrepreneurs, investors, and academics, spanning countries and continents. Fraser emphasized that Africa’s young, tech-savvy population is a crucial factor in the continent’s economic growth.
Global Potential and a Vision for the Future
Okwoli and Letsie are both committed to scaling their startups beyond Africa. “I want to find ways to position Bare Mind as a global business, given that mental health is a global phenomenon,” Letsie stated. Okwoli echoed this sentiment, envisioning Betalife as “a global solution that ensures hospitals and patients have timely access to blood.”
As the African Impact Challenge continues to foster entrepreneurial talent, it exemplifies the power of local innovation, turning Africa’s health challenges into opportunities for sustainable, scalable solutions that could benefit communities worldwide.
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