Investing in Health | December 14, 2022

Transform Health Fund scores $50 million from investors for healthcare in Africa

Jessica Pothering
ImpactAlpha Editor

Jessica Pothering

ImpactAlpha, December 14 – Impact investor AfricInvest and internationally-backed Health Finance Coalition are partnering on a planned $100 million fund to improve access, affordability and quality of care in Africa’s underinvested healthcare sector.

With 16% of the global population, Africa receives just 1% of global health spending.

Transform Health Fund, announced at last week’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit hosted by President Joe Biden, will blend financing to make mezzanine and debt investments to scale “locally-led health supply chain, care delivery and digital solutions.” The fund will demonstrate “that health enterprises serving the most vulnerable communities are investible,” said Martin Edlund of Health Finance Coalition and its parent organization, Malaria No More. “To solve the health financing gap in Africa, we need to crowd in substantial private investment.”

Innovation in healthcare “provides an opportunity to leapfrog” in underserved regions like Africa, said Makhtar Diop of International Finance Corp., which has committed to the Transform Health Fund, along with USAID, the U.S. Development Finance Corp., Merck, Philips, FSD Africa, MCJ Amelior Foundation and others.

The fund “demonstrates what’s possible when you combine a ‘capital stack’ approach to financing with a genuine commitment to transformational impact,” said MCJ Amelior’s Ray Chambers, a World Health Organization ambassador for global strategy and health financing.