The Manager of Investment Funds for Healthcare in Africa (IFHA) has transitioned its leadership and ownership.

Having been appointed as Partners in 2021, Menka Shah and Eline Blaauboer are now also co-owners of the Manager alongside one of the founding partners, Onno Schellekens.

Menka Shah is one of the most experienced healthcare investors and operators in the East African region.

She joined IFHA in 2015 to set up the IFHA office in Kenya and to oversee IFHA’s investments in the healthcare service provision vertical, leading to the establishment of one of the largest private healthcare networks in East Africa. Prior to joining IFHA, Shah was at IFC, Acumen and Ernst &Young.

Eline Blaauboer joined IFHA in 2021 and is a pioneer in the field of private equity in East Africa. As Managing Partner of TBL Mirror Fund, she was the founding chair of the East Africa Venture Capital Association, managed and set-up Safaricom’s corporate venture fund, and oversaw some of the first investments in healthcare and mobile technology in the African region.

Onno Schellekens is one of the founding partners of IFHA and a co-founder and Chairman of Carepay. Schellekens is a globally recognized entrepreneur and thought leader in the field of innovative healthcare financing; he has previously served as the CEO of Pharmaccess and has founded various technology companies.

IFHA was established in 2008 as one of the first private equity funds dedicated to investing in healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa.

It has raised over $200m over two funds from both public and private investors, investing in 18 companies of which 10 have been successfully exited so far.

IFHA’s Managing Partner Max Coppoolse retired in 2021, and CFO and Partner Pieter Zuijdgeest retired in 2020.

IFHA has a diverse range of investors interested in supporting the development of healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa including the founding commercial investors - Goldman Sachs, Heineken, Unilever, Shell, SNS and Aegon; development finance institutions- IFC, FMO, European Investment Bank, African Development Bank, Dutch Good Growth Fund and the Swiss Investment Bank; pension funds - APG and Achmea; and strategic investors - Pfizer, Gilead and ELMA.

Over the last 15 years, IFHA’s investments in all sectors of the healthcare value chain (healthcarefinance, delivery, provision, technology, manufacturing) have contributed at a macro level tothe continued development and professionalization of the sectors as well as the strategic growth of the investee companies.

These investment include health insurers and HMOs (AAR insurance, Hygeia HMO); hospitals and clinics (AAR, Kampala Hospital, Nakasero Hospital, Lagoon Hospitals, C-Care); health technology companies (Carepay, Hello Doctor); and pharmaceutical and medical equipment distributors (WWCVL, Labotec, Pyramid Healthcare, Trivitron).

IFHA is committed to its vision of investing in healthcare in Africa and will focus its future investment strategy on technology innovation in the private delivery of public goods, in collaboration withits sisterorganizations, Pharmaccess and MCF.