Digital health tools, such as virtual interactions and paperless data, are getting a boost in Africa. That’s because digital health start-ups have seen an uptick in investment in recent years, find senior partner Matt Wilson and coauthors. For example, between 2019 and 2021, digital health investments on the continent jumped from $29 million to $123 million.
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A pair of bar graphs show two separate metrics. The first displays the annual value of digital health investments in Africa from 2015 to 2021, measured in millions of dollars. This graph shows a sudden trebling, from $29 million in 2019 to $103 million in 2020. The second graph shows the number of funded digital health start-ups in Africa annually during the same period. The number of funded start-ups increases steadily, from 17 in 2017 to 55 in 2021.
Footnote 1: Lockdowns and distancing during the COVID-19 crisis allowed digital health start-ups to rapidly increase their user bases and levels of public visibility, thus sparking increased investor interest.
Source: The African tech startups funding report 2021, Disrupt Africa, 2021
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To read the article, see “How digital tools could boost efficiency in African health systems,” March 10, 2023.