The Secret Sauce of Raising Capital for Health Businesses Scaling in Low and Middle Income Countries

Background

The Every Woman Every Child Innovation Marketplace is a scaling platform that supports social enterprises with promising and impactful health innovations to scale in low and middle income countries (LMICs) supported by anchor partners (The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada, Norad & USAID).  At SOCAP 2019, the EWEC Innovation Marketplace hosted a session in which two highly successful digital health innovators went head to head in a riveting debate that explored the pros and cons of scaling through government and private sector pathways in LMICs.

In keeping with our theme of highlighting the dynamic experiences of global health social enterprises, this year, the Marketplace will be discussing our experiences working with these companies and also talking to the executives of these organizations on their scaling plans by highlighting 3-4 entrepreneurs who are currently scaling impactful businesses in India and Africa.

Investors, funders and entrepreneurs – join us as we uncover best practices and battle stories of success, failures and lessons learned in pre and post COVID-19 conditions.

Objective

The Marketplace is a scaling platform within the Every Woman Every Child Partnership umbrella housed within Grand Challenges Canada, an organization that has improved 6.2 million lives and saved over 31,000 lives through its impact-first investments to date. We are uniquely placed to understand the barriers to scaling social enterprises from an entrepreneur, donor and investor perspective.  We are committed to sharing our findings with those who actively work to fulfill SDGs 3 and 5. Our session will cater to a diverse group of global health actors and will allow participants to learn from experts in the field.

Format

The Executive Director of the Every Woman Every Child Secretariat will interview 3-4 LMIC-based entrepreneurs in addition to the Managing Director of the Every Woman Every Child Innovation Marketplace and Managing Partner of Cross-Border Impact Ventures, Annie Thériault.  This discussion will be followed by a Q&A session with the audience.

Introduction: 5 mins

Panel: 30 mins

Audience Q&A: 20 mins

Concluding remarks: 5 mins

Confirmed Panelists

Moderator: Ms. Vivian Lopez, Executive Director of the Every Woman Every Child Secretariat

Global Health Investment Expert: Dr. Annie Thériault, Chief Investment Officer of Grand Challenges Canada and Managing Partner of Cross-Border Impact Ventures

Innovators: Social impact start-ups supported by the Every Woman Every Child Innovation Marketplace currently scaling in LMICs (examples include Healthy Entrepreneurs, Jacaranda, Sagitarix, Hewa Tele, Neopenda, THINKMD, GestVision, BEMPU & LifeBank)

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