The initiative, known as Horizon1000, was unveiled on Tuesday and will begin in Rwanda, with plans to expand to other African countries over the coming years. The programme aims to reach 1,000 clinics and surrounding communities by 2028.

According to the partners, the initiative will use AI to improve primary healthcare delivery, particularly in regions facing shortages of doctors, nurses, and medical facilities. The foundation said the technology is designed to support, not replace, frontline health workers by improving diagnostics, patient record management, and clinic efficiency.

Bill Gates said artificial intelligence could help expand access to quality healthcare in settings with limited medical resources, while OpenAI said it would provide technical expertise and help ensure ethical deployment of AI tools.

Horizon1000 builds on the Gates Foundation’s long-standing investments in digital health across Africa, including electronic medical records, mobile health platforms, and AI-driven disease surveillance. Sub-Saharan Africa currently faces an estimated shortfall of six million health professionals.

Rwanda was selected as the pilot country due to its investments in health innovation, including the establishment of an AI health centre in Kigali and the use of drones for medical supply delivery.

The programme will initially focus on maternal care, disease detection, clinic efficiency, and health worker training, with OpenAI providing the AI infrastructure and the Gates Foundation coordinating partnerships with governments and public health institutions.

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TECHDIGEST – Nearly 50% of the start-ups are women-led, and 30% of the companies are operating in Francophone Africa. The selected start-ups will receive a $50,000 grant and access to market opportunities to catalyze growth-driven partnerships with donors, and industry, and institutional stakeholders.

The 30 companies selected hail from 14 African countries. Operating in early- and growth stages, the companies are delivering novel solutions for device and medicines distribution, stock management and financing, authentication, traceability, medical waste management and more  – demonstrating that African-built solutions are poised to help transform access to health products in many ways. 47% of the companies are women-led (which the program defines as having at least one woman with an equity stake and active executive leadership role), and 30% of the companies are operating in Francophone Africa.

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Disclosing this, Ann Allen, Senior Program Officer at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation comments “Digitally-enabled, locally-led innovations have huge potential to help address the challenges of access to medicines for historically unserved patients in Africa. We are thrilled to see strong women leaders at the helm of many of these start-ups, as we know innovation ecosystems are strengthened by diversity.”

The selected companies are, in alphabetical order: Chekkit Technologies, Disrupt Pharma Tech Africa (Medsaf), DrugStoc Ehub Limited, Erith Health Services, Gricd, LifeBank, Lifestores Healthcare, OneHealth, ClinicPesa, Damu Sasa, The Pathology Network, Negus Med, Signalytic, Viebeg Technologies, Zuri Health, Xetova, Cure Bionics, DeepEcho, Dr Sett, Infiuss Health Limited, Medevice, Meditect, Sobrus, Valorigo, Azanza Health, Appy Saude, Aviro Health, Contro, VaxiGlobal, Zinacare.

Dr. Abdullahi Sheriff, Associate Vice President of Global Market Access at MSD noted “The innovation represented by the start-ups selected is inspiring. At MSD, we are excited by the opportunity to collaborate with these leading innovators through i3, to help transform health care supply chains and improve access to medicines across Africa.”

“The breadth of innovation represented by the cohort of companies selected is confirming that data-driven innovations can play an important role in rapidly improving the resilience of African health supply chains.”

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