Strategic Initiatives: Innovative financing
As an impact-first investor, we balance our unwavering focus on health outcomes with a strategic approach that values sustainable, entrepreneurial solutions.
At Grand Challenges Canada, we've developed a distinctive approach to financing innovations that addresses the critical gap between promising ideas and widespread impact. As an impact-first investor, we balance our unwavering focus on health outcomes with a strategic approach that values sustainable, entrepreneurial solutions.
Our investment philosophy centers on deploying catalytic capital—patient, risk-tolerant, and flexible funding—to help innovations navigate the challenging "valley of death" between proof-of-concept and scale. We're one of few global health investors willing to accept disproportionate risk to attract additional investment, fuel business growth while preserving impact, and position companies for long-term sustainability.
This approach has yielded significant results: our $20 million investment has mobilized more than $250 million from corporations, financial institutions, and foundations. For example, our $1.5 million investment in Hewatele's innovative "milkman model" for medical oxygen distribution helped secure $19 million in equity and debt financing, dramatically expanding access to this life-saving resource in Kenya.
What sets our strategy apart is our comprehensive de-risking approach—a phased investment structure that functions as a filtering system, ensuring only the most viable solutions advance. By absorbing the inherent risks of innovation, we present thoroughly vetted opportunities to subsequent investors and governments
Innovative financing: Impact investment funds
Our work with impact funds demonstrates how strategic investment can drive both financial returns and meaningful health outcomes. The Global Health Investment Fund, where we served as an anchor investor, has achieved remarkable results: through investments in Eubiologics alone, over 250 million people have been reached in low- and middle-income countries, including 133 million oral cholera vaccine doses delivered across 25 countries.
We've also made deliberate investments in Cross Border Impact Ventures and Transform Health Fund, supporting women-led and Africa-focused funds addressing critical healthcare gaps. These investments not only target pressing health challenges but also help break down barriers for underrepresented fund managers in the impact investing ecosystem.
The Transform Health Fund: Investing in locally-led healthcare solutions in Africa
The Transform Health Fund is a joint venture between the Health Finance Coalition and AfricInvest, bringing together commercial, public, and private donors to invest in locally-led health supply chains, care delivery, and digital solutions in Africa. Grand Challenges Canada (with support from the Government of Canada) was one of the first investors to the Fund, having contributed USD $5M and an additional $500,000 to support a deal construction pipeline for the Fund.
The first close of the Transform Health Fund marks a significant milestone in our commitment to African healthcare innovation. As one of only five funders in the catalytic layer, we contributed $5 million, representing over 25% of the catalytic capital raised. This pioneering blended finance structure features both catalytic and commercial shareholder classes, with our investment helping to meet the critical 35% threshold required for catalytic capital.
Transform's portfolio is projected to invest $175 million USD after recycling, reaching 15 million people, improving healthcare access for 8 million individuals, saving 150,000 lives, and creating over 15,000 jobs, with women representing at least half of the beneficiaries.
Read the announcement about the first close of the Fund.
Cross-Border Impact Ventures
Two years after its launch, Cross-Border Impact Ventures (CBIV) has closed its first fund, securing over $90 million USD ($135 million CAD) in total commitments.
Through CBIV's Women’s and Children’s Health Technology Fund, the women-led, impact-focused venture capital (VC) firm invests in tech startups that address the health needs of women, children, and adolescents and strengthen health systems in emerging economies.
CBIV was created in 2019 with the financial and institutional support of Grand Challenges Canada, and it was subsequently spun out as a standalone private impact fund. GCC provided concessionary capital to CBIV, with the aim of investing in the underfunded area of women's and children's healthtech.
Innovative financing: GCC's first equity investment
Access Afya: Clinic in a Box
In March 2024, we reached a milestone with our first direct equity investment in Access Afya, a company providing affordable primary healthcare to Kenya's low-income communities through micro-clinics and telemedicine. This $675,000 equity stake represents the evolution of a decade-long partnership that began with seed funding and developed through convertible notes as the company refined its model.
The investment supports Access Afya's expansion plans—18 new micro-clinics by 2025—that will reach an additional 168,000 patients, including 20,000 people who would otherwise lack quality care. Their approach delivers healthcare that is three times faster and up to eight times more affordable than alternatives while maintaining a 95% patient recovery rate.
Our experience confirms that while the investment landscape remains dominated by return-seeking investors, there's both an opportunity and responsibility to provide catalytic capital for global health enterprises, especially those serving the most vulnerable populations. By deploying the right financial instruments at the right time, we're demonstrating that saving lives and creating sustainable enterprises can go hand in hand.