#38: 54gene - How the HealthTech platform is building diverse datasets to improve diagnostic and treatment outcomes across Africa

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

Listeners: We’d love to hear from you. Email [email protected] with feedback!

Founders: We'd love to hear about what you're working on, email us at [email protected]

Investors: We'd also love to link up with you to drive the ecosystem forward. Contact us at [email protected]

Join our insider mailing list where we get feedback on new episodes & find all episodes at Afrobility.com