Future Health and Bridge for Billions Plan Health Venture Program for Emerging Markets
The staged program will screen about 50 founders across Africa and Asia, then take a smaller cohort to Abu Dhabi to work alongside regulators, providers and investors.
Future Health – A Global Initiative by Abu Dhabi and Bridge for Billions will jointly run an entrepreneurship program for health ventures in emerging markets, combining structured capacity-building with specialist expertise, networks and connections into health systems.
Future Health operates as a collaboration platform focused on health innovation. Bridge for Billions is a global social enterprise that runs online incubation programs for early-stage founders. The joint program targets two constraints that commonly hold health ventures back: limited access to capital and limited access to specialist guidance.
The case for targeting those constraints rests partly on how concentrated venture funding remains. The World Intellectual Property Organization's Global Innovation Index 2024 reported that Latin America and Africa together accounted for about 3% of global venture capital deals in the first half of 2024. Venture capital values fell 19% in Asia-Pacific and 80% in Africa.
Those figures describe a funding map tilted toward a handful of regions. Founders working elsewhere often lack money, and they also lack specialist investors who understand regulated health products. The program's contribution is training and introductions; no direct investment component was described.
The design puts two elements side by side: structured capacity-building for founders, and access to expertise, networks and connections into health systems. Both are meant to reach ventures that have already built something and now need help navigating regulation, health systems and investors.
Delivery will be staged. The first phase will identify about 50 entrepreneurs across Africa and Asia. Ventures must have moved beyond the idea stage. Assessment will weigh quality, maturity, scalability, market need and relevance to health priorities. That intake spans two continents and a wide range of regulatory regimes.
The second phase offers a tailored online program covering regulatory navigation, integration with health systems, validation of business models and investor readiness. Sessions are delivered online, so participation does not require travel before the Abu Dhabi stage. A smaller group will then be selected for an acceleration phase in the emirate, where participants will engage with regulators, healthcare providers, research institutions and investors.
Dr. Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, said entrepreneurs with a deep understanding of their communities can develop solutions grounded in real health needs, local realities and affordability.
Pablo Santaeufemia, CEO of Bridge for Billions, said entrepreneur support organizations are closest to health founders in emerging markets. Those organizations, he said, understand local regulatory landscapes, health systems and venture communities.
That argument places existing local intermediaries at the center of how outside programs scale. Pairing remote selection and coursework with a later phase in Abu Dhabi also means most of the cohort is screened before anyone travels, and that only a small group reaches the emirate's health ecosystem in person. For founders in these markets, the practical test is whether introductions made during the program turn into pilots, contracts or capital after it ends.
Applications, eligibility criteria and additional program details will be announced later.
