The Africa Health Ventures Podcast
Episodes
Joanna Bichsel of Kasha
11 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What does it really take to deliver health and household products to the last mile at scale?Joanna Bichsel is the Founder and CEO of Kasha, the leadin...
How The Fight Against Breast Cancer is Changing in Africa
11 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Only half of the women diagnosed with breast cancer in Africa today survive. Why? This episode uncovers how women are dismissed or diagnosed too late—...
HearX: How a South African Startup took the Global Stage
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From a university in South Africa to the shelves of Walgreens in the United States, the South African tech company HearX has risen to be a global indu...
Myths and Realities of Investing in Africa
10 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Today we tackle head-on the myths and misconceptions of investing in Africa. We invite two of the leading venture capitalists in Africa to field toug...
InstaDeep: The African Exit
26 Nov 2024
Contributed by Lukas
InstaDeep was the largest acquisition on the African continent last year, sold for half a billion euro to the pharmaceutical company BioNTech. We spea...
AI Tools, Tips, and Trends for Public Health
03 Jul 2024
Contributed by Lukas
In our fourth and final episode of the AI for Health Series, we take a peek under the hood of the maternal health chatbot supporting pregnant woman d...
How LLMs Will and Won't Work for Healthcare in Africa
13 Jun 2024
Contributed by Lukas
There's a lot of hype about what generative AI and LLMs like ChatGPT will do to improve healthcare in Africa and around the world - but is it going to...
AI for Health, Part 2: A Step Ahead
21 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
How do global actors stay one step ahead of the risks posed by AI for health?In Part 2 of our 3-part series on AI for Health, we dive deeper to see wh...
AI for Health, Part 1: Promise and Perils
02 May 2024
Contributed by Lukas
With the mind-bending pace at which artificial intelligence (AI) is changing the way we work and live, healthcare organizations are asking themselves:...
The Medicine Supply Chain in Africa, Part 2: The Next 10 Years
30 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 10 years, the medicine supply chain in Africa will look very different than it does today. In Part 2 of this podcast, we examine four key trends wh...
The Medicine Supply Chain in Africa: from Manufacturer to Pharmacy (Part 1)
21 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What does it take to move a pack of medicines from a factory in India to the shelves of a mom-and-pop pharmacy in Zambia? In this episode, we explore ...
Introducing the Africa Health Ventures Podcast
28 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Unlocking access to quality healthcare in Africa by 2030 will require radical innovations. Join veteran digital health / healthtech entrepreneur Rowen...
Chuck Slaughter of Living Goods: Digital First Healthcare Saving Lives at the Last Mile
05 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Chuck Slaughter is the founder of Living Goods, which supports over 10,000 digitally-empowered community health workers who are reducing child deaths ...
Dr. Agnes Binagwaho, Former Minister of Health of Rwanda
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Agnes Binagwaho is a pediatrician, former Minister of Health of Rwanda, Senior Lecturer at Harvard University, Advisor to the Director-General of ...
Investing in Healthcare with the World’s Largest Pure-Play Impact Investor
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Biju Mohandas has led investments at not just one but three different household names in impact investing: LeapFrog Investments, the International...
Technology, Innovation, and the Global Fund
09 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
John Fairhurst is the head of Private Sector Engagement at the Global Fund. As such, he is the link between this global institution and innovators ran...
Nicole Spieker of PharmAccess Foundation
25 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When you dig into the problem of providing quality healthcare in Africa, sooner or later you hit the foundational question, “who is going to pay for...
Curt LaBelle, M.D., Managing Partner of the Global Health Investment Fund and the AXA IM Global Health Fund
11 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
GHIF was a "first-of-its-kind investment product", the fund was created in 2012 through the surprising alliance of the Gates Foundation and JP Morgan ...
Margot Cooijmans of Philips Foundation
28 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Margot Cooijmans is an impact investor, philanthropist, entrepreneur, corporate lawyer, and expert on essential Corporate Social Responsibility. For m...
Joseph Ssentongo of the Global Innovation Fund
28 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the Senior Vice President of Impact at the Global Innovation Fund, Joseph Ssentongo works at the challenging nexus of innovation, evidence and impa...
Pippa Yeats of Turn.io: Sending a Lifeline to the People of Ukraine
07 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Pippa Yeats first built Turn.io to send reminders to mothers in South Africa about how to stay healthy. She never dreamt that she would be one of the ...
Andy Bryant of Segal Family Foundation
24 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 2022, Segal Family Foundation was the second largest US grant-maker in Sub-Saharan Africa by number of grants given (below Gates and above Ford Fou...
Andy Pattison of WHO: 12 Days to Launch the Largest WhatsApp Service in the World
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
On March 8, 2020, Dr. Tedros asked Andy Pattison to set up the World Health Organization (WHO)’s global COVID-19 hotline, a process that would norma...
Hannah Subayi: From Billion Dollar Fund Manager to Pan-African Angel Investor
29 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Hannah's done it all, from managing a billion-dollar fund to sowing the seeds for new ventures in Africa. She has invested directly in the companies w...
Creating New Ways to Fund Innovations in Global Health with Rebecca Distler of the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Join us in conversation with Rebecca Distler, Strategist for AI, Data, and Digital Health at the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation. She shares the trials...
Season 3 Teaser: Donors and Investors in Digital Health / HealthTech
15 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Season 3 of Aid, Evolved digs into the intimidating world of donors and investors in global digital health / healthtech. What's it like to walk a mile...
BongoHive: Building the Zambian Tech Sector from the Ground Up
04 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Lukonga Lindunda is a startup ecosystem builder. He is Executive Director and co-founder of BongoHive, an award-winning innovation hub and tech incuba...
Robert Karanja, Villgro Africa, and the Next Frontier of Genomics Startups in Africa
06 Sep 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Robert Karanja recalls how he founded Villgro Africa, a tech incubator and impact investor focused exclusively on health innovations in Africa. St...
Digitizing the Largest TB Program in the World with Andrew Cross of Everwell
31 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Like another airborne disease we are all familiar with, tuberculosis (TB) spreads invisibly through the air. If you catch it and you don't treat it, y...
The Future of Pharmacy with Samuel Okwuada of Remedial Health
09 Aug 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In the heart of Nigeria's COVID-19 surge in 2020, Samuel Okwuada started receiving a string of phone calls from local pharmacies who were struggling t...
Let’s Get African HealthTech Founders a Seat at the Table
26 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mara Hansen Staples is on a mission to tear down the glass ceiling that stands between African innovators and global funding. She spent years talking ...
Alain Nteff of HealthLane: How to Close Investment, Precision Health, and Building World-Class Laboratories in Africa
05 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alain Nteff is the CEO and Founder of Healthlane. Healthlane delivers precision personal health plans through a network of world-class laboratories in...
Throwback: David vs. Goliath with Mike Quinn of Zoona
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Quinn was co-founder and CEO of one Africa's earliest major financial technology (FinTech) companies, Zoona. He raised over 35 million dollars of...
Femi Kuti of Reliance Health: Are You Fulfilling Your Mission?
07 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Femi Kuti is the CEO and co-Founder of Reliance Health - an HMO using tech to make quality healthcare delightful, affordable, and accessible in emergi...
Yetunde Ayo-Oyalowo of Market Doctors: Taking Healthcare out of the Ivory Tower
24 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Yetunde Ayo-Oyalowo founded Market Doctors based on the idea of bringing healthcare to people where they live and work. Market Doctors is a social ent...
Chrispinus Onyancha of clinicPesa: How to Lift Yourself Up in Business
10 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Chrispinus Onyancha is the Founder and CEO of clinicPesa. clinicPesa is a FinTech company that provides affordable healthcare financing to the uninsur...
Alloysius Attah of Farmerline: Go Big or Go Home
26 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Today, April 26 2022, Farmerline announced that it has raise $6.4 million in Pre-Series A investment and an additional $6.5 million in debt. Farmerlin...
Nthenya Mule of Antara Health: Making Healthcare Personal in Kenya
12 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Nthenya Mule is one of the founders of Antara Health, a technology company reimagining primary care to serve Kenyans both at home and in the clinic. ...
Ben Bellows of Nivi: Getting the Market Incentives Right
29 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Bellows spent almost 20 years studying the economics of aid systems - but 2 years ago Ben quit his day job to go all-in on Nivi. Nivi is a chatbot...
Healthcare Financing for the Next Billion with Ikpeme Neto of WellaHealth (Nigeria)
09 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ikpeme Neto is the CEO and Founder of WellaHealth in Nigeria. He's carried this healthtech startup through a major pivot from pharmacy automation to l...
Achieving Financial Sustainability in Open Source with Yaw Anokwa of ODK
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In November of 2020, I sat down with Yaw Anokwa, founder and CEO of ODK, to talk about the unsustainability of open-source software in global developm...
Seeking Knowledge from Chaos with Tigest Tamrat of WHO
02 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to health, there are few people who are tasked with answering the Big Questions: what's actually working? Where is the evidence? And how...
Aid, Evolved: Looking Back on 2021
08 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today I pull together some of the conversations in 2021 that really made my head spin. I clicked ‘record’ on the first episode of Aid, Evolved ju...
Walking Away from Half Your Revenue with Jon Jackson of Dimagi
24 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Jon Jackson is the CEO and Co-Founder of Dimagi, a social enterprise that delivers digital solutions to improve lives in over 130 countries. In today'...
David vs. Goliath with Mike Quinn of Zoona
10 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Mike Quinn was co-founder and CEO of one Africa's earliest major financial technology (FinTech) companies, Zoona. He raised over 35 million dollars of...
How to Create a Shared Reality with Kevin Starr of Mulago Foundation
27 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
What would you do if you had millions of dollars to invest in impact? Would you put it in an existing charity - or would you try to do something diffe...
Reinventing Yourself on the Journey to Scale with Sathy Rajasekharan of Jacaranda Health
13 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sathy Rajasekharan is the co-Executive Director of Jacaranda Health. Frustrated with the speed of change within larger institutions, Sathy joined Jaca...
In Country and Behind the Scenes with Marie Ahmed of USAID
29 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Marie Ahmed has worked within USAID to strengthen health systems in Nepal, Rwanda, Côte d'Ivoire, and Thailand. She has a long career in the non-prof...
Growing 10X in a Year with Evelyn Castle of eHealth Africa
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Evelyn Castle is a woman who just doesn't know when to stop. She has founded multiple social ventures in the technology and health space in Africa. Sh...
Charting Your Own Course with Erica Layer of D-Tree
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Erica Layer is the CEO of D-Tree International, a global digital health organization dedicated to ensuring everyone has access to quality primary heal...
What Stands the Test of Time with Dominic Atweam of Ghana Health Services
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After more than 15 years in Ghana Health Services, Dominic Atweam has seen all the major digital health systems in Ghana come and go. But one system w...
Invest In Ecosystems, Not Apps, With Rahul Mullick And The Gates Foundation
27 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After rising to the top of the global consulting industry, Rahul Mullick joined the Gates Foundation to oversee some of their most ambitious work in d...
Empower Women to Code with Marlene Mhangami of the Python Software Foundation
20 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Marlene Mhangami is a remarkable woman. She was the first African woman to join the board of the global Python Software Foundation (PSF). PSF develops...
The Promise and Peril of Biometrics with Sebastian Manhart and Simprints
29 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sebastian Manhart has recently concluded his role as COO of Simprints. Simprints is the world's only nonprofit biometrics company focused on the last ...
From Serial Entrepreneur to Non-Profit Founder with Gustav Praekelt of Praekelt.org
15 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gustav Praekelt is founder, chairman, and CEO of the African-based Praekelt Group. Praekelt has directly delivered essential health information to 100...
Foreign Aid or Local Aid? The Side Hustles of Ismaila Diene of Dimagi
01 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we dive into the life and side hustles of Ismaila Diene, a senior executive within Dimagi. Born, raised, and now returned back to Senegal, he sh...
Learning How to Speak Up with Joy Kamunyori of JSI
25 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today we speak with Joy Kamunyori. Joy has a long career in digital health, and most recently was the Program Director at the Center for Digital Healt...
Side Chat: Behind the Scenes with Three Digital Development Podcasts
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In late 2020, a few months after much of the world entered pandemic lockdown, three different digital development podcasts were each independently lau...
The Seven Lives of Living Software with Nic Pottier of Nyaruka
18 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nic Pottier is the CEO and co-founder of Nyaruka, a software startup founded in Rwanda. Nyaruka builds and maintains RapidPro and TextIt.com. RapidPro...
Digital Identity, Cash, and Trust in Humanitarian Response with Rosa Akbari
27 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rosa Akbari is a humanitarian technologist. She deploys digital technologies for crisis response, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. Mo...
Defying Expectations with Nithya Ramanathan of Nexleaf Analytics
13 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nithya Ramanathan is CEO and co-founder of Nexleaf Analytics, a technology non-profit. Today, Nexleaf technology protects the vaccine supply for 1 in ...
Side Chat: Podcasting in the Aid Industry with Stephen Ladek of the Terms of Reference Podcast
06 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In 2019, when I started thinking about doing a podcast on innovation in aid, I looked around to see what else was out there. At the time, one podcast ...
If What You Need Doesn't Exist, Go Build it - Ken Banks of FrontlineSMS
30 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ken Banks built the first version of FrontlineSMS over 5 weeks while unemployed at the home of his in-laws. Just a few years later, it was in use by d...
The Tip of the Spear with Matt Berg of Ona
16 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Today's episode is a far-ranging conversation with Matt Berg, founder and CEO of Ona. We peel apart the many layers of Matt's life as an immigrant, a ...
6,000 Videos by Smallholder Farmers with Rikin Gandhi of Digital Green
02 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Rikin Gandhi reverse-emigrated to India to join a bio-diesel startup - which went under the week that he landed in the country. After that, he cold-em...
Side Chat: Wandering in the Woods in West Africa
23 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This short episode is the first in our experimental ‘side chat’ format. It started out as I (your host, Rowena) was writing a ‘thank you’ not...
From ICTD Research to Practice with Eric Brewer of UC Berkeley
16 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Eric Brewer is a remarkable man. He founded a company that made it to the NASDAQ-100 within 4 years. He shaped the backbone of the modern day web....
The Many Sides of Digital Health with Liz Peloso
02 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Liz Peloso has experienced digital health from many sides. With roughly a decade's experience as a practicing nurse, a decade in private sector health...
Starting Up in South Africa with Nneile Nkohlise of 3DIMO
26 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Nneile Nkohlise is well known in South Africa for her work as an innovator, founder, technologist, and risk-taker. She was recognized by the World Eco...
Punching Above Your Weight with Karl Brown and the Rockefeller Foundation
19 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Karl Brown spent 8 years at the Rockefeller Foundation, investing across multiple domains, including pandemic response, digital health, health systems...
Connecting the Roof of the World with Yahel Ben-David of AirJaldi
12 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Dr. Yahel Ben-David has spent most of his career bringing low-cost internet to resource-constrained communities from the Indian Himalayas to Californi...
Fostering a Culture of Innovation in Malawi with Gerry Douglas
15 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gerry Douglas is known for many things: for founding Baobab Health Trust in Malawi, for his work as the Director of the Center for Health Informatics ...
Starting by Luck and Succeeding by Grit with Yaw Anokwa of ODK
08 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Yaw Anokwa is founder and CEO of ODK. ODK's mission is to design, build, deploy and support offline data collection software for low-resource settings...
Finding Your Way into Digital Health with Derek Treatman of Vital Wave
01 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Derek Treatman is a Senior Director of Technology Solutions at Vital Wave, where he supports governments and nonprofits in low-resource countries to u...
Digital Health Systems Strengthening with Sean Blaschke of UNICEF
24 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Blaschke from UNICEF’s Technology for Development (T4D) team has spent the past 15 years working on technology for global development in Africa...
A Business Approach to Social Change with Soraiya Verjee of Every1Mobile
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Soraiya Verjee has been a Director at Every1Mobile for the past 7 years, working to deliver digital solutions to drive social change in communities ac...
Coming Soon: Aid, Evolved will launch in November 2020
07 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We’ll be launching this podcast in November 2020. To get notified when we're live, sign up to our mailing list at AidEvolved.com. In this welcome me...