#38: 54gene - How the HealthTech platform is building diverse datasets to improve diagnostic and treatment outcomes across Africa
Afrobility: Africa Tech and BusinessPlay episode
Show notes
Overview: Today, we’re going to talk about 54gene - the genomics HealthTech company. We’ll explore the 54gene story across 6 areas:
African Health care status & context 54gene early history Fundraising & Growth Product & monetization strategy Competitive positioning & potential exit options Overall outlook. This episode was recorded on Sep 19, 2021
Companies discussed: 54gene, llumina, African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, Y Combinator (YC), 50 Years, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Gilead, IMS Health, Broad Institute, Novartis, Cathay AfricInvest, Helium Health & mPharma
Business concepts discussed: Genomics, Capacity development / Local knowledge development, Healthcare technology, Health insurance coverage, commercial biobanks & public policy
Conversation highlights:
(00:54) - Why we’re talking about 54Gene today (06:25) - Context on Healthcare and Genomics in Africa (27:02) - 54Gene founding and early history (34:13) - Fundraising and early growth - Seed, Series A, Series B (54:15) - Product and monetization strategy (1:11:00) - 54Gene capacity building (1:17:00) - Competition in this space, exit opportunities (1:30:39) - Olumide’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:42:38) - Bankole’s overall thoughts and outlook (1:56:03) - Recommendations and small wins
Olumide’s recommendations & small wins:
Recommendation: Afridigest newsletter (by Emeka Ajene) Awesome and well done. Combines threads from multiple angles. Fabulous. Recommendation: Frontier FinTech Newsletter (by Samora Kariouki) So thorough and detailed. Love it. Recommendation: Kate Nash - Foundations. So good Small win: Galaxy Buds 2 - Small, ANC (Active Noise Cancellation), great battery life, good software controls Other content: Boom - Supersonic Passenger Airplanes
Bankole’s recommendations & small wins:
Recommendation: Slow Down - King Promise, Code Breakers by Walter Isaacson & Sarah Tavel on 20 minute VC Small win: Chelsea FC 3-0 W vs Tottenham Other content: 54Gene partnership with Illumina & Colonialists are coming for blood - Literally
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