U of T’s African Impact Challenge is empowering startups to help solve health crises

Mathew Okwoli, a software engineer, has more than a passing familiarity with the shortcomings of Nigeria’s sprawling blood supply system. A few years ago, an aunt of his died during surgery because the hospital where she was being treated didn’t have enough blood. In the aftermath of this family tragedy, Okwoli began to investigate why it occurred. “We discovered that in various hospitals, they don’t have the right facilities for blood storage, or can’t connect to blood banks around them,” he says.
These revelations seeded an idea: could he build a software platform that would give users – hospitals and physicians – access to the locations of the closest blood banks with matching supplies?
The result is Betalife Health, which Okwoli, who is chief technology officer, co-founded with a colleague. Its aim is to create a subscription-based software platform, also accessible via an app, that not only gives health-care providers timely information about blood supplies but will eventually predict demand using AI that draws on health data, such as disease prevalence.
The company also plans to offer services that would enable users to save for future health expenses and book appointments to donate blood. In a nation of 230 million people with very low levels of donation – the annual need is two million pints and only 500,000 are donated – Betalife’s solution aspires to be a lifesaver. “Access to blood is very, very low, and demand is very high,” Okwoli says.
Betalife was one of nine African startups invited to a pitch session at the Jackman Law Building on the St. George campus this past June. The participants belonged to the third cohort of entrepreneurs enrolled in the university’s African Impact Challenge, a business incubator at U of T Scarborough. Each startup was given three minutes to make their business case to an audience of potential investors and strategic partners.