News: Chemonics Joins Innovative Blended-Finance Fund to Scale Healthcare Solutions Throughout Africa 

The Fund, announced today as part of the White House’s U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit, will help bolster healthcare systems in Africa and address the continent’s massive financing gap. THF marks Chemonics’ first venture into impact investing and underlines its commitment to investment as a tool for increasing its development impact. 

Among the public and private sector first-round investors, Chemonics stands out as the sole international development implementing organization in the commercial layer, pledging a $1.9 million investment as a limited partner. Other investors include U.S. International Development Finance Corporation (DFC), U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), International Finance Corporation (IFC), Royal Philips, Merck & Co, Johnson & Johnson, FSD Africa, Anesvad Foundation, Netri Foundation, Grand Challenges Canada (with funding from Global Affairs Canada), and MCJ Amelior Foundation.   

Africa faces a health financing gap of an estimated $66 billion annually, made worse by the COVID-19 global pandemic. THF will position private, return-seeking capital to co-invest alongside African governments and donors to address this gap and scale transformative health innovations that serve the most vulnerable. 

“We see in our work every day that some of the most powerful health and supply chain innovations for closing the major gaps in healthcare access that persist across Africa are locally-generated solutions,” said Chemonics President and CEO Jamey Butcher. “These solutions can be a force multiplier for impact at scale, and we have a responsibility to accelerate this potential by supporting local innovators who need access to the resources, networks, tools, and capital that can bring these transformative ideas to life. Chemonics is proud to be joining the Transform Health Fund, a vehicle with the potential to do just that.” 

THF will be managed through a joint venture agreement between AfricInvest, one of the leading impact private equity firms in Africa, and the Health Finance Coalition, a coalition of leading philanthropies, donors, technical partners, and institutional investors.