The Timbuktoo healthtech hub was on November 9 officially launched in Kigali, during Youth Connekt summit 2024.

It is one of 10 thematic hubs of the Timbuktoo initiative, which will incubate and accelerate startups that leverage technology to address health challenges across the African continent.

The initiative aims to support startups that are developing solutions in deep tech, hardware, and advanced technologies, with particular focus on AI-driven diagnostics, locally manufactured medical devices, and biotechnology tailored to African needs.

"Forty finalists from 20 different countries across Africa have been selected from a pool of 900 applicants to join the first cohort of the Timbuktoo HealthTech startup Accelerator Programme here in Kigali," Natalie Jabangwe, the CEO of Timbuktoo Africa Innovation Foundation, told The New Times.

She added that the startups selected for incubation and acceleration will have the opportunity to receive equity-free grants of up to $100,000.

The 40 finalists will attend a boot camp in Kigali and thereafter go into the incubation and acceleration phase, with the most promising startups receiving wrap-around support for a period of five months, including curated technical assistance, coaching, product refinement, and scaling

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"In addition to the HealthTech hub in Kigali and the Fintech Hub in Lagos, Nigeria, we plan to launch the MineTech hub in Zambia and the ClimateTech hub in Nairobi, Kenya before the end of the year," Jabangwe said.

The Timbuktoo initiative aims to mobilize and invest $1 billion of catalytic and commercial capital, over the next 10 years to build a distributed innovation network of ten pan-African hubs located in key ecosystems.

The innovation financing facility comes at a crucial time when funding for African tech startups has been on a decline.

According to a recent report by Disrupt Africa, African tech startups secured $306 million in funding during the third quarter of 2024, a 40 per cent decrease compared to the same period in 2023.

In 2023, African tech startups raised a total of $2.4 billion from 406 companies, amidst a global capital shortage that began to affect markets last year and continued to impact investment in 2024.