Founders: Comfort Peace Ayikoru, Kidande Steven, Nakato Bridget Prudence, Mutaka Keith, and Mugiraneza Warren
The Africa Higher Education Health Collaborative, in partnership with the Mastercard Foundation, will be welcoming the Health Entrepreneurship (HENT) African Impact Challenge’s second cohort 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.
The University of Toronto’s Health Collaborative Internal Communications Working Group caught up with the ventures to learn more about the origins of their companies, what they’ve learned to date, and what is coming up next…
BuriCare Limited
BuriCare Limited emerged from a poignant experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, when one of the founders witnessed firsthand the tragic consequences of inadequate neonatal care facilities. Comfort Peace Ayikoru saw her cousin struggle to obtain proper treatment for their pre-term baby due to the hospital’s limited resources. Despite being referred to a better-equipped facility, the infant tragically succumbed to hypothermia enroute.
This heartbreaking incident spurred the BuriCare Limited founder to take action. She joined co-founders Kidande Steven (CTO), Nakato Bridget Prudence (M&E Specialist), Mutaka Keith (CMO), and Mugiraneza Warren (CFO) to create their solution. The team recognized a concerning trend of infant mortality in pediatric wards due to prematurity-related complications. They reviewed 2022 UNICEF reports, which revealed staggering statistics: 15 million children born preterm annually, with over 1 million succumbing to preventable issues like hyperthermia and respiratory distress. Alarmingly, 60% of these cases occur in Sub-Saharan Africa, where Uganda alone loses 8 of every 27 infants daily.
In response, BuriCare Limited introduced 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.
Furthermore, vital infant data is seamlessly relayed to the Kangaroo mobile app, enabling remote monitoring by healthcare professionals. BuriCare Limited, committed to its mission, has successfully registered the company, and developed the initial product. Basic Kangacare baby carriers have already sold out, demonstrating the pressing need and demand for such innovative solutions.
What is the accomplishment to date that your team is most proud of?
“To date, we have been able to legally register the company as BuriCare Limited and we have an office space in Luwero- Uganda. We have been able to build Version 1 called Basic Kangacare carriers which is currently being sold. We have prototyped the Pro-Kangacare kits that have vital sensors and are awaiting Mbrara University Research Ethics Committee approval to carry on Feasibility and Acceptability Study starting in July this year.”
If you could give advice to another founder getting started, what would that be?
“Resilience is something every founder should have in them because the road is not always smooth. There will be times when you want to give up but always look at the brighter picture of how many people will be helped with such an innovation. The other is teamwork, when you collaborate and work together, you can achieve greater things as a team.”
BuriCare Limited has developed prototypes for the Pro-Kangacare kits, equipped with essential sensors, and is currently awaiting approval from the Mbarara University Research Ethics Committee to commence a Feasibility and Acceptability Study scheduled to begin in May 2024. Additionally, the company aims to ramp up production of its basic Kangacare carriers, with a goal of achieving 1000 sales by the end of the year. BuriCare Limited is actively seeking partnerships with NGOs and government entities to extend its reach and impact.
You can learn more about BuriCare Limited
More News & Events
Skip scroller content
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Venture Spotlight: Vas MedTech
Vas MedTech offers FlexiGyn, a portable, user-guided, and minimally invasive diagnostic camera that can operate in less specialized settings. This innovation is not only cost-effective, but also enhances accessibility. FlexiGyn enables community primary healthcare providers, such as nurses and general practitioners, to perform initial screenings and seamlessly consult with gynecologists for further diagnosis and referrals. FlexiGyn aims to make comprehensive women’s health care more accessible and convenient than ever before, thus addressing a global disparity in women’s health services.
Venture Spotlight: HealthEdu Ltd.
HealthEdu aims to confront the pressing need for a unified, easily accessible platform catering to the educational needs of healthcare professionals. HealthEdu creates a supportive community wherein practitioners, health organizations, and academic institutions converge to exchange insights, glean best practices, and collectively elevate standards of care.