Abu Dhabi's Future Health Backs 50 Health Startups in Africa, Asia

Future Health, the Abu Dhabi-backed global health initiative, will back roughly 50 early-stage health entrepreneurs across Africa and Asia through a new programme built with Spanish-founded venture-support platform Bridge for Billions. The two organisations announced the partnership on October 21 in Abu Dhabi.

The bet comes against a stark funding backdrop. WIPO's Global Innovation Index 2024 found that Latin America and Africa combined accounted for only around 3% of global venture-capital deals in the first half of 2024. Venture-capital values fell 19% in Asia-Pacific over the period — and dropped 80% in Africa, according to the same index.

That capital drought hits health founders hardest, because they need more than money. Promising ventures in emerging markets often lack specialist guidance and health-system connections to grow, the announcement noted. Yet the economic case for backing them is concrete: the World Bank Group estimates that each health-sector job in low-income countries is associated with roughly 3.4 additional jobs across related industries.

What does the programme actually offer founders?

It runs in three phases. The first identifies around 50 entrepreneurs in Africa and Asia who have moved beyond the initial idea stage but remain early enough to benefit from structured support — what the organisers call late-incubation to early-acceleration ventures. Selection will weigh quality, maturity, scalability, market needs and relevance to health priorities.

The second phase delivers a tailored online curriculum covering four areas: regulatory navigation, health-system integration, business-model validation and investor readiness. A smaller group will then be selected for an acceleration phase in Abu Dhabi, where founders can engage directly with the emirate's regulators, healthcare providers, research institutions and investors.

That Abu Dhabi leg is the programme's real currency. It gives Global South founders a pathway into one of the region's most active health-investment ecosystems — and gives Abu Dhabi early sight of solutions it may want to attract.

Her Excellency Dr Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, framed the logic in a statement: "Entrepreneurs with a deep understanding of the communities they serve can develop solutions grounded in real health needs, local realities, and affordability and access to the right expertise, networks and investment can help turn that potential into lasting impact."

Bridge for Billions brings its own distribution channel. The company runs Conecta Healthcare, an initiative that works with entrepreneur support organisations, or ESOs — the incubators and accelerators closest to health founders in emerging markets.

"Entrepreneur support organizations are closest to health founders in emerging markets. They understand the local regulatory landscape, the health systems and the communities where these ventures operate, and they are often the first to back a founder long before capital arrives," said Pablo Santaeufemia, CEO of Bridge for Billions. "Through Conecta Healthcare, Bridge for Billions advocates for ESOs and works alongside them, because strengthening these organisations is how we strengthen health entrepreneurship at scale."

Santaeufemia added that the goal is to give founders and the organisations supporting them "the tools, networks and visibility to shape the future of global health innovation, especially across the Global South."

Who is behind Future Health?

Future Health operates under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Chairman of the Abu Dhabi Executive Council. The Department of Health – Abu Dhabi curates and convenes it.

Its founding partners are PureHealth, M42, the Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi and Mubadala Bio. Mediclinic Middle East serves as Strategic Partner and Burjeel Holdings as Associate Partner.

The platform works year-round across four focus areas: longevity and precision medicine, health systems and sustainability, digital health and AI, and investment in life sciences. This new programme forms part of that broader effort to build practical pathways for health innovation to scale and reach communities in need.

What happens next?

Applications, eligibility criteria and further programme details will be announced at a later stage, the organisers said. For founders in Africa and Asia, the practical question is timing: cohort size is capped near 50, and the Abu Dhabi acceleration phase takes only a subset of those.

Founders who move early on applications — once they open — will compete for one of the few structured routes into Abu Dhabi's health innovation ecosystem currently available to early-stage ventures from the Global South.