ABU DHABI, 21st October, 2026 (WAM) -- Future Health – A Global Initiative by Abu Dhabi - and Bridge for Billions will launch a new entrepreneurship programme designed to strengthen promising health ventures in emerging markets and help locally-developed solutions reach more people.
The new programme will seek to address some of the barriers faced by entrepreneurs, combining structured capacity-building with access to expertise, networks, and health systems connections. Over time, selected entrepreneurs will also have opportunities to engage with Abu Dhabi’s health innovation ecosystem and explore pathways for wider growth.
The first phase will focus on identifying around 50 entrepreneurs across Africa and Asia who have progressed beyond the initial idea stage but remain early enough to benefit from structured support. Ventures will be assessed on quality, maturity, scalability, market needs, and relevance to health priorities.
The second phase will deliver a tailored online programme covering regulatory navigation, health-system integration, business-model validation, and investor readiness. Following this, a smaller group will then be then selected for an acceleration phase in Abu Dhabi, creating opportunities to engage with the emirate's regulators, healthcare providers, research institutions and investors, and build longer-term relationships across its health innovation ecosystem.
This dedicated acceleration phase in Abu Dhabi will support selected entrepreneurs in scaling their solutions. This is the centrepiece of the 'world to Abu Dhabi' dimension and will be designed to create lasting ecosystem relationships, not just temporary residency.
Dr Noura Khamis Al Ghaithi, Undersecretary of the Department of Health – Abu Dhabi, said: “Entrepreneurs with a deep understanding of the communities they serve can develop solutions grounded in real health needs, local realities, and affordability and access to the right expertise, networks and investment can help turn that potential into lasting impact. Future Health’s collaboration with Bridge for Billions can help deepen their impact at home, while creating pathways for the most promising solutions to reach more people over time.”
For Abu Dhabi, the programme will also create a pathway to engage with promising, locally-tested health innovation emerging from diverse markets. By connecting selected entrepreneurs with the emirate's health ecosystem, the programme aims to support longer-term knowledge exchange and collaboration while strengthening Abu Dhabi's connections to emerging health innovation globally.
“Entrepreneur support organizations are closest to health founders in emerging markets. They understand the local regulatory landscape, the health systems and the communities where these ventures operate, and they are often the first to back a founder long before capital arrives. Through Conecta Healthcare, Bridge for Billions advocates for ESOs and works alongside them, because strengthening these organisations is how we strengthen health entrepreneurship at scale,'' said Pablo Santaeufemia, CEO of Bridge for Billions.
Together with Future Health, we want to give founders and the organisations that support them the tools, networks and visibility to shape the future of global health innovation, especially across the Global South,'' he added.
Emerging markets are home to significant health needs and entrepreneurial potential, yet many promising ventures can struggle to access the capital, specialist guidance, and health-system connections required to grow. WIPO’s Global Innovation Index 2024 reported that Latin America and Africa together accounted for around 3% of global venture-capital deals in the first half of 2024, while venture-capital values fell by 19% in Asia-Pacific and 80% in Africa.
At the same time, entrepreneurs rooted in the communities they serve can bring a close understanding of local health needs, affordability constraints, and the realities of delivering care. Strengthening these businesses has the potential to create wider benefits for their communities, according to the World Bank Group, each health-sector job in low-income countries is associated with an estimated 3.4 additional jobs across related industries.
The programme forms part of Future Health’s year-round work to create practical pathways for global health innovation to develop, scale, and reach the communities in need.
Applications, eligibility criteria and further programme details will be announced at a later stage.