clinicPesa, an Outbox Startup providing access to healthcare financing through digital microloans and savings to uninsured low-income individuals in Uganda is one of the six enterprises that have been selected for the MIT D-Lab’s 2019-2020 Scale-ups.
Launched in 2012, the D-Lab Scale-Ups Fellowship is a one year program, providing a grant to each fellow and tailored mentoring, capacity building and inclusive design training, and networking.
The accelerator works with local entrepreneurs bringing poverty-alleviating products and services to emerging markets at scale. The entrepreneurs for this cohort are from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.
These six social enterprises were selected from a pool of over 150 nominated by various actors. The entreprises are representative of diverse sectors, including healthcare, agriculture, construction, and more.
Here is the full list of the 2019-2020 Fellows
Solar Freeze -a Kenya-based enterprise that pioneers mobile cold storage units powered by renewable energy for rural smallholder farmers, to help them reduce the huge challenge of post-harvest loss. In many developing countries, postharvest losses are as high as 80% and the cold‐storage chain is virtually non‐existent because of high equipment costs and spotty electricity. Therefore, Solar Freeze develops solar-powered mobile cold storages for smallholder farmers.
EcoAct Tanzania - developed a chemical-free and energy conserving technology that transforms plastic garbage into durable plastic timbers for construction and building in Tanzania. The plastic timber from EcoAct’s technology that is obtained is an affordable alternative to timber, reduces the need for building material manufactured from wood, and helps to preserve forests and mitigate climate change.
Kwangu Kwako -provides safer, healthier and more secure housing alternatives to the traditional informal settlement structures in Kenya. To do this, they use reinforced pre-cast concrete panels made by local artisans within the community. The outcome is a safer, simpler and more cost-effective alternative to the existing Mabati structures, which are temporary homes built from corrugated iron sheets and bush poles.
clinicPesa -provides access to healthcare financing through digital microloans and savings to uninsured low-income individuals Uganda. clinicPesa enables its users to transfer small amounts of money to their accounts whenever possible, through their mobile phones or clinicPesa’s homepage. This allows customers to build a small pot of savings that can be used to access basic healthcare, offset medical bills, and buy drugs at any clinicPesa-registered clinic, hospital or pharmacy.
Expressions Global -provides innovative, durable and environment-friendly rain water harvesting products and services to help communities in Kenya achieve improved access to clean water. They do this by constructing rain water harvesting reservoirs and supply piped water to smallholder farmers, in order to support irrigation-fed farming for high value crops. This enables rural communities to promote food security, and enhance overall economic well being.
FixChap - is a digital platform through which clients can book repair requests and get connected instantly to verified handymen within their locations. Handymen are sourced from the vocational training institutions; these have centers countrywide with networks of trained youths. This enables home owners and office owners to be attended by competent people who can handle well these repair tasks, and also provides stable income to the handymen.
At Outbox, we help new and upcoming African entrepreneurs interested in using technology to build high growth companies with co-working space, business incubation and technical training programs. Through our partnerships, we also help them raise money and access markets.
