Future Health and Bridge for Billions Launch Global Entrepreneurship Programme to Support Health Innovation in Emerging Markets
Future Health – A Global Initiative by Abu Dhabi, in collaboration with Bridge for Billions, is set to launch a new entrepreneurship programme aimed at strengthening promising healthcare ventures in emerging markets and helping locally developed solutions expand their reach. The initiative will focus on supporting entrepreneurs across Africa and Asia by providing structured business development guidance, access to specialist expertise, connections with healthcare systems, and opportunities to engage with investors and innovation networks.
The programme seeks to address persistent challenges faced by early-stage healthcare businesses, particularly those working in markets where access to capital, experienced mentors, regulatory guidance, and established healthcare networks can be limited. By combining capacity-building support with potential opportunities to connect with Abu Dhabi’s healthcare innovation ecosystem, the initiative aims to help entrepreneurs develop sustainable business models and bring solutions addressing local health needs to a wider population.
Emerging markets represent an important source of healthcare innovation, driven by entrepreneurs who understand the needs, affordability constraints, infrastructure limitations, and care delivery challenges affecting their communities. However, translating promising ideas into scalable ventures often requires more than technical expertise or a viable product. Healthcare entrepreneurs must also navigate complex regulatory requirements, establish relationships with providers and other health system stakeholders, demonstrate commercial viability, and secure the resources needed to expand operations.
Through this collaboration, Future Health and Bridge for Billions intend to create a more structured pathway for promising ventures to overcome these barriers. The programme will initially identify approximately 50 entrepreneurs across Africa and Asia whose businesses have moved beyond the idea stage but remain early enough to benefit from dedicated entrepreneurial support.
Addressing barriers to healthcare entrepreneurship
Healthcare entrepreneurs in emerging markets frequently operate in environments where unmet medical needs coexist with limited investment opportunities and fragmented support systems. Although these markets offer considerable potential for innovation, businesses may struggle to obtain the financial resources and specialized guidance necessary to develop their products, establish partnerships, and reach new customers.
The funding environment has also presented challenges for startups across several emerging regions. According to the World Intellectual Property Organization’s (WIPO) Global Innovation Index 2024, Latin America and Africa together accounted for approximately 3% of global venture-capital deals during the first half of 2024. The report also highlighted declines in venture-capital values of 19% in Asia-Pacific and 80% in Africa.
These figures illustrate the challenges facing entrepreneurs who depend on external financing to develop and scale their businesses. For healthcare ventures, the barriers can be particularly significant because bringing solutions to market may require clinical validation, regulatory approvals, specialized manufacturing capabilities, data protection measures, and integration with existing healthcare delivery systems.
In addition, healthcare businesses must demonstrate that their products and services can address genuine clinical or operational needs while remaining affordable and accessible to the populations they intend to serve. Entrepreneurs may need support to validate demand, refine pricing strategies, establish appropriate distribution channels, and build relationships with hospitals, healthcare professionals, public health organizations, and other potential partners.
The Future Health and Bridge for Billions programme is designed to address several of these challenges through a combination of structured training, mentorship, business development resources, and ecosystem engagement.
Rather than focusing exclusively on financing, the initiative will help entrepreneurs strengthen the foundations of their businesses. This approach is intended to improve their readiness to attract investment, establish partnerships, and pursue sustainable growth opportunities.
Locally developed solutions can strengthen healthcare systems
A central principle of the programme is the recognition that entrepreneurs working within their own communities often have a detailed understanding of the health challenges affecting local populations.
These founders may be better positioned to identify gaps in healthcare access, recognize affordability barriers, and develop solutions that reflect local infrastructure, cultural considerations, and patient needs. Their proximity to the communities they serve can help them design products and services that are more appropriate for the environments in which they will be implemented.
Locally developed healthcare innovations may address a wide range of needs, including access to essential services, more efficient care delivery, improved patient support, and solutions adapted to resource-constrained healthcare systems. However, even ventures with strong local relevance can encounter difficulties when attempting to expand beyond their initial markets.
Developing a scalable business requires entrepreneurs to demonstrate that their solutions can operate effectively across different settings, comply with relevant regulations, and generate sufficient financial sustainability to support continued growth.
The new programme aims to help founders bridge the gap between local relevance and broader market potential. By providing tailored guidance and opportunities to connect with relevant stakeholders, the initiative will seek to strengthen businesses that have the potential to create measurable benefits for healthcare systems and the communities they serve.
The broader economic significance of healthcare entrepreneurship is also reflected in research from the World Bank Group. According to the organization, each healthcare-sector job in low-income countries is associated with an estimated 3.4 additional jobs across related industries.
This relationship highlights the potential for healthcare investment and business development to generate benefits beyond direct medical services. Expanding healthcare ventures can support employment, strengthen supply chains, create opportunities for specialized service providers, and contribute to economic activity in related sectors.
By helping promising healthcare businesses become more sustainable and scalable, the programme aims to support both health innovation and the wider economic opportunities associated with the healthcare sector.
Abu Dhabi strengthens its role in global health innovation
Future Health’s collaboration with Bridge for Billions reflects Abu Dhabi’s broader ambition to build connections with innovators and entrepreneurs working to address healthcare challenges worldwide.
Through the programme, selected founders will have opportunities to engage with the emirate’s healthcare innovation ecosystem, including regulators, healthcare providers, research institutions, and investors. These connections are intended to help entrepreneurs better understand potential routes to collaboration, market development, and future expansion.
Engagement with healthcare regulators can help founders understand the requirements that may apply to their products and services. Connections with healthcare providers can offer opportunities to explore how innovations might fit within existing care pathways, operational processes, and service delivery models.
Research institutions may provide valuable expertise for ventures that require further technical development or scientific collaboration, while investors can help entrepreneurs understand financing expectations and prepare for future fundraising discussions.
For ventures seeking to expand internationally, access to a well-connected innovation ecosystem may also help them identify relevant partners and better understand the practical considerations involved in entering new markets.
Her Excellency Dr Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, emphasized the importance of supporting entrepreneurs who understand the communities in which they operate.
She explained that founders with direct knowledge of local healthcare needs can develop solutions grounded in real-world circumstances, including affordability and access challenges. However, she noted that connecting these entrepreneurs with the right expertise, networks, and investment can help transform promising ideas into lasting impact.
According to Al Ghaithi, the collaboration between Future Health and Bridge for Billions is intended to deepen the impact of local healthcare solutions while creating pathways for the most promising ventures to reach more people over time.
The initiative therefore combines a focus on strengthening businesses in their home markets with opportunities to explore wider growth through engagement with Abu Dhabi’s healthcare innovation community.
Bridge for Billions emphasizes the role of entrepreneur support organizations
Bridge for Billions brings an entrepreneurship development perspective to the initiative, with an emphasis on supporting founders and the organizations that help them build sustainable businesses.
Pablo Santaeufemia, chief executive officer of Bridge for Billions, highlighted the importance of entrepreneur support organizations (ESOs) in helping healthcare founders navigate the challenges of developing ventures in emerging markets.
These organizations often have close relationships with local entrepreneurs and a detailed understanding of the regulatory environments, healthcare systems, and communities in which businesses operate. They may also provide some of the earliest forms of support to founders, helping them develop their business models and strengthen their operations before they have access to external investment.
Through its Conecta Healthcare initiative, Bridge for Billions advocates for and works alongside entrepreneur support organizations, recognizing their role in strengthening the wider healthcare entrepreneurship ecosystem.
Santaeufemia explained that supporting these organizations can help extend the benefits of entrepreneurship development to a larger number of founders. By strengthening the capabilities of local support networks, programmes can help create more sustainable systems for identifying, mentoring, and developing promising healthcare businesses.
He added that the partnership with Future Health aims to provide entrepreneurs and the organizations supporting them with the tools, networks, and visibility needed to influence the future of global health innovation, particularly across the Global South.
This approach places emphasis on both individual ventures and the broader networks that help entrepreneurs succeed. While founders require practical assistance to validate and scale their businesses, local support organizations can help ensure that this guidance remains relevant to the markets and communities in which the ventures operate.
Programme will identify approximately 50 entrepreneurs across Africa and Asia
The initiative will be implemented through a phased structure designed to identify promising ventures, strengthen their business capabilities, and create opportunities for further acceleration.
The first phase will focus on identifying approximately 50 entrepreneurs across Africa and Asia. These businesses will have progressed beyond the initial idea stage but will still be at a point where structured entrepreneurial support can help them refine their strategies and prepare for growth.
The selection process will consider several factors, including the quality and maturity of each venture, its scalability, the market need it addresses, and its relevance to healthcare priorities.
This assessment is intended to identify businesses with a clear understanding of the problems they seek to solve and a credible opportunity to develop sustainable solutions.
Evaluating market needs will be particularly important because healthcare innovations must address meaningful challenges to achieve adoption. Entrepreneurs will need to demonstrate how their offerings respond to the requirements of patients, providers, or other healthcare stakeholders, as well as how their businesses could operate sustainably in their target markets.
The programme’s emphasis on scalability will also help identify ventures with the potential to extend their impact beyond an initial customer base or geographic area.
Tailored online training will strengthen business readiness
Following the selection process, participating entrepreneurs will take part in a tailored online programme covering key areas of healthcare venture development.
The curriculum will address regulatory navigation, health-system integration, business-model validation, and investor readiness. These subjects are particularly relevant to healthcare startups because their commercial success often depends on regulatory compliance, acceptance by healthcare stakeholders, and the ability to demonstrate a sustainable route to market.
Regulatory navigation will help founders better understand the frameworks and requirements relevant to their businesses. Depending on the type of solution and target market, these considerations may influence product development, commercialization timelines, and market-entry strategies.
Health-system integration will focus on the relationship between innovative solutions and the systems in which they are intended to operate. Healthcare businesses may need to demonstrate how their products or services can work alongside existing clinical workflows, provider networks, and delivery infrastructure.
Business-model validation will help entrepreneurs examine the commercial foundations of their ventures, including market demand, customer needs, pricing, and opportunities for sustainable revenue generation.
Investor readiness will support founders in preparing for potential financing opportunities by strengthening their understanding of business performance, growth prospects, and the information investors may require when evaluating a venture.
Together, these areas are intended to help entrepreneurs build stronger businesses and improve their preparedness for future partnerships, investment discussions, and expansion opportunities.
Selected ventures will progress to an acceleration phase in Abu Dhabi
After completing the online programme, a smaller group of entrepreneurs will be selected to participate in an acceleration phase in Abu Dhabi.
This phase will provide opportunities for selected founders to engage directly with stakeholders across the emirate’s healthcare innovation ecosystem. Potential connections will include regulators, healthcare providers, research institutions, and investors.
The acceleration phase is expected to help participating ventures explore practical opportunities for collaboration and build longer-term relationships with organizations that may support their development.
For founders, these interactions could provide valuable insight into healthcare market requirements, potential partnership models, and the considerations involved in expanding their businesses. They may also help entrepreneurs identify areas where further technical development, evidence generation, or commercial planning could strengthen their solutions.
The programme’s phased structure combines broad-based entrepreneurial development with a more focused acceleration opportunity for selected ventures. This enables the initiative to support a wider group of entrepreneurs initially while concentrating additional ecosystem engagement on businesses identified as having strong potential for further growth.
The programme’s overall objective is to help promising healthcare ventures become better equipped to serve their existing communities while exploring opportunities to reach additional populations.
Supporting Future Health’s wider global innovation mission
The entrepreneurship programme forms part of Future Health’s year-round efforts to establish practical pathways through which global health innovations can develop, scale, and reach the communities that need them.
Its collaboration with Bridge for Billions brings together an emphasis on healthcare innovation, entrepreneurial capacity-building, and access to a broader network of ecosystem stakeholders.
The initiative recognizes that addressing healthcare challenges requires more than generating new ideas. Entrepreneurs also need the skills, partnerships, business structures, and resources necessary to translate those ideas into solutions that can be implemented and sustained.
By helping founders strengthen their business models and connect with relevant expertise, Future Health and Bridge for Billions aim to support the development of ventures that respond to real healthcare needs while pursuing long-term growth.
Further details about applications, eligibility criteria, and the programme’s structure will be announced at a later stage. The organizations have not yet disclosed the application timeline or the complete selection requirements.
As the initiative moves forward, its focus on entrepreneurs across Africa and Asia is intended to create opportunities for locally developed healthcare solutions to gain stronger business foundations, build meaningful partnerships, and explore pathways to broader adoption. The programme also reflects the growing importance of collaboration between international innovation initiatives and local entrepreneurship support organizations in strengthening healthcare innovation across emerging markets.
About Future Health – A Global Initiative by Abu Dhabi
Future Health is a year-round platform for global collaboration and transformative health innovation, held 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.
Bringing together health researchers, policymakers, business leaders, investors and entrepreneurs from across disciplines and geographies, Future Health drives collective action to strengthen health systems and unlock longer, healthier lives for all.
Through a year-round programme of research insights, publications, impact initiatives, Challenges, R&D funding, and cross-sector convenings, Future Health advances progress across four focus areas: longevity and precision medicine, health systems and sustainability, digital health and AI, and investment in life sciences.
Future Health is curated and convened by the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi and its Founding Partners PureHealth, M42, Institute for Healthier Living Abu Dhabi, and Mubadala Bio. Mediclinic Middle East serves as Strategic Partner and Burjeel Holdings as Associate Partner.