The Health Entrepreneurship (HENT) Challenge’s first cohort is getting ready for their upcoming visit to Toronto, where they will continue their implementation phase through activities targeting business development, expanding entrepreneurial networks and facilitating exposure to potential investors.
In the meantime, the HENT Communications team caught up with the ventures from the first HENT Challenge cohort to learn more about the origins of their companies, what they’ve learned to date, and what is coming up next…
Having grown up in rural areas, Beatrice Ayinkamiye and Dioscore Shakima were well aware of the obstacles small farmers faced in accessing customers. This inspired them to create Food Bundles, an app that enables farmers to increase their earnings and reduce post-harvest losses. Their solution allows consumers in bigger cities to budget for their food, and small farmers to have the ability to limit food price inflation by eliminating middlemen grocery stores. Food Bundles collects produce directly from small farmers and their app provides consumers the opportunity to get fresh food delivered right to their doorstep.
Acknowledging the researched connection between Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and malnutrition, poor distribution of nutritious food and poor education on health nutrition, Food Bundles is also using their platform to fight increasing NCDs in cities. Through Food Bundles, household consumers in cities can select pre-made bundles of food which are curated to maximize nutrition. Customers can also opt to receive recommendations based on their health status, ensuring they have access to the food best positioned to improve their health.
What is the accomplishment to date that your team is most proud of?
Finding a market product with a working business model that was ready to scale up was a great achievement. We have a mobile application for both consumers and aggregators available on both iOS and Android which allows us to serve all our users. To date, we have built a network of 10,000 smallholder farmer suppliers and seen more than 1500 transactions with customers in Kigali. We are also happy to expand our operations in the Zambia market!
If you could give advice to another founder getting started, what would that be?
Be ready to exercise patience, building a product is not the problem but finding a product market fit to have a profitable and scalable business takes much time than expected, and raising needed capital is harder than what you can possibly imagine. Have resilience!
Looking forward, Food Bundles is aiming to raise the necessary financial resources to stabilize their technology, upgrade their logistics, and scale up to three markets in the next year and a half. In their upcoming quarter, this looks like growing their B2B customers base, with a goal of obtaining daily fresh food orders of $100+ to 100 small-to-medium restaurants.
![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/Vector.png)
You can learn more about Food Bundles
More News & Events
Skip scroller content![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Landscape_Health-in-Africa-760x380.png)
Attaining Connected Healthcare through a National Data Platform
About the Speaker (Dr. Job Nyangena): Dr. Job Nyangena is a medical doctor and seasoned digital health professional with a distinguished career spanning over a decade. Combining a strong foundation in medicine with a deep understanding of technology, Dr. Nyangena has been instrumental in shaping the digital health landscape both in Kenya and internationally. With […]
![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/A-Case-Study-of-TAAAC-760x380.png)
A Model for International Partnerships: A Case Study of TAAAC
The University of Toronto and Addis Ababa University are pleased to invite you to the next episode of the Health in Africa series discussing A Model for International Partnerships.
![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/BetaLife-Health-1-760x524.png)
Venture Spotlight: BetaLife Health
BetaLife Health uses artificial intelligence (AI) to revolutionize blood supply management across Africa. Their platform uses predictive analytics to optimize blood inventory levels, distribution logistics and donor engagement, thereby improving the timeliness and availability of blood for transfusions.
![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/REMEDIUS-MOBILE-HEALTH-760x524.png)
Venture Spotlight: Remedius Mobile Health
Remedius Mobile Health aims to combat the identified problems by leveraging telemedicine through the Remedius Live platform. They seek to provide fast virtual appointment scheduling with doctors and specialists at affordable rates of about five dollars and provide comprehensive care to chronically ill patients. This is executed through an integral network of facilities that provide physical care to these patients if need arises.
![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Powerstove-Energy-760x524.png)
Venture Spotlight: Powerstove Energy
Powerstove designs and manufactures smart smoke-free cookstoves that also self-generate electricity for users to charge their mobile phones and power home appliances using proprietary renewable bio-pellets as fuel. These sustainable, mosquito repellent bio-pellets are produced from post-harvest crops and wood waste.
![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/SnooCODERED-760x524.png)
Venture Spotlight: SnooCODERED
SnooCODERED aims to solve the problem of inadequate healthcare infrastructure (systems, facilities and human resources) in Africa. It is doing this by providing a suite of cost-effective mobile healthcare logistics applications that democratize access to the ambulance or first aid response, facilitate the delivery of medical supplies to diverse populations, and improve contact tracing and epidemiological modelling.
![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Telemedan-760x524.png)
Venture Spotlight: Telemedan
Telemedan creates telemedicine kiosks in underserved communities in order to move toward closing the healthcare accessibility gap. Their kiosks facilitate video conferences between patient and doctor. They are equipped with medical devices for taking vital signs, such as ECG analysis, temperature measurement and blood oxygen saturation. Further, they feature stethoscopes, dermascopes, an HD camera and a scanner for the easy sharing of documents and lab results. With a focus on ease-of-access, Telemedan’s kiosks are user-friendly and accessible to those of varying levels of technology literacy.
![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/BuriCare-Limited-760x524.png)
Venture Spotlight: BuriCare Limited
BuriCare Limited has launched their Kangacare baby carriers, designed to address the critical need for newborn care, especially in regions lacking adequate neonatal facilities. With only four Neonatal Intensive Care Units available in their country, Kangaroo Mother Care emerged as a cost-effective solution, promoting vital skin-to-skin contact between mother and newborn to regulate body temperature. These locally knitted carriers are equipped with essential sensors capable of monitoring the baby’s temperature, pulse rate, and oxygen saturation. In the event of any abnormalities, an alarm alerts the mother to seek immediate assistance.
![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Health-in-Africa-Flyer-Jun2024.png)
Collaborative Biotech Research: The Case of Ashesi’s Open DNA Collection in Africa
The University of Toronto and Ashesi University are pleased to invite you to the next episode of the Health in Africa series discussing Collaborative Biotech Research: The Case of Ashesi’s Open DNA in Africa.
![](https://africahealthcollaborative.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/A-Lite-Vein-Locator-760x524.png)
Venture Spotlight: A-Lite Vein Locator
The A-Lite Vein Locator is a medical device that facilitates the non-invasive detection of veins under the skin. Using the A-Lite Vein Locator shortens cannulation time by up to 88.5 seconds and lowers the risk of needle-stick injuries and infections. Further, the use of the A-Lite Vein Locator has been shown to decrease medical waste and unnecessary use of clinic resources.