Open Call for AI4Health Asia: Accelerating AI Innovations in Health

Deadline: 3-Mar-23

Are you an entrepreneur committed to building inclusive, equitable, and resilient health systems in Asia? If yes, then Villgro Philippines is looking for cutting-edge solutions that will transform the way Sexual, Reproductive, and Maternal Health as well as Epidemic and Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness, and Response are addressed across South and Southeast Asia.

The AI4Health Asia is a 10-month accelerator program designed to promote and nurture innovations in Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) in South and Southeast Asia.

Objectives

• The objective of the program is to fund and support startups that integrate AI innovations to solve health challenges across the region still reeling from the impact of COVID-19, particularly in the areas of:
  • Sexual, Reproductive, and Maternal health, and
  • Epidemic and Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness and Response.
• The program will work to create and enable a robust ecosystem of support and catalyze responsible development, scaling, and support for AI innovations in healthcare.

Aims

AI4Health Asia aims to:

• Identify: innovative startups working on AI integration in health, particularly SRMH & pandemic response in South & Southeast Asia
• Provide: hands-on commercial / technical / ethical training and support from domain experts to Asian AI entrepreneurs on product development, go-to-market, and growth strategies
• Catalyze: promising entrepreneurs with seed funding to grow talent and capacity in the region to support the local design, development, and deployment of responsible AI for health innovations
• Connect: AI-enabled innovations with appropriate capital providers to improve health systems in South and Southeast Asia

What does the Program offers?

• Tailored Support: A customized 10-month program designed to help validate and scale the innovations toward growth and impact
• Seed Funding: Each startup will receive a grant of up to USD 6,250 to be used to conduct lean experiments to validate business models during the program
• Peer Learning and Coaching: Startups will go through intensive virtual ‘learning labs’ facilitated by global experts through a high-impact curriculum and deep dives with peers through sharing circles
• Mentoring: Access to one-to-one mentoring by business and domain experts to support lean experimentation and business model validation & growth
• Technical Assistance: Tailored technical assistance from sector experts in the fields of digital health, ethics in data and health, gender-disaggregated data, AI designed for gender-specific concerns
• Investment Readiness: Each startup will receive bespoke investment readiness support from their in-house investment and finance experts to build/strengthen their financial management systems, refine financial models and investment asks, and craft pitch decks and data rooms
• Follow-on Funding: Startups that are ready and have investment potential will have the opportunity to get matched and pitch to Villgro’s partner investors at the end of the accelerator program
• Impact Showcase: An opportunity for the startups to showcase their solutions to investors, funders, peers, and stakeholders

Eligibility Criteria

• Startups that are AI-enabled and offer data-driven products or services that improve health outcomes around:
  • Sexual, Reproductive, or Maternal Health; OR
  • Epidemic & Pandemic Prevention, Preparedness & Response
• Founder/co-founders of a startup with a legal entity in South and Southeast Asia in any of the following countries:
  • Philippines
  • Indonesia
  • Thailand
  • Vietnam
  • Bangladesh
  • Nepal
• Underrepresented founders and women-led startups are highly encouraged to apply

For more information, visit Villgro Philippines.