Impilo launches collaboration with Kenyan non-profit innovators
The Nordic investment company Impilo partners with Lwala Community Alliance in Kenya to reduce maternal and child mortality in rural areas. Impilo will provide both financial and strategic support to scale their innovative community-based model.
”Impilo invests in companies that enable people to enjoy healthier lives now and in the future. Our partnership with Lwala is another way of contributing to that same objective. Together we will help spread Lwala’s proven model to improve health for the poor in Kenya, and actively engage our employees”, says Veronica Byfield Sköld, Partner at Impilo.
Lwala Community Alliance is a non-profit organisation started in 2007 by two Kenyan brothers, Milton and Fred Ochieng,who grew up in rural Kenya and studied to become medical doctors in the USA. Lwala recruits, trains and reimburses Community Health Workers who are often former Traditional Birth Attendants. Digitally empowered Community Health Workers identify pregnant women as they proactively visit homes, and link mothers to the formal health system and support safe delivery at a health facility. They track the health of every newborn and ensure on-time immunizations. Furthermore, Lwala works with community members and government to ensure local clinics have the resources, training, and systems to provide quality care.
Based on Lwala’s evidence of impact with 60,000 people – including a 64% reduction in child deaths, a 73% reduction in infant deaths, and a 97% immunization rate compared with 57% in the rest of the county – the local Ministry of Health has invited Lwala to expand their model to 1 million people in Migori County.
”We are very pleased to have Impilo with us on this journey, contributing not only financially but also with strategic advice from a business perspective. This will be very helpful in our scale up process”, says Julius Mbeya, Managing Director of Lwala. Together they will address the top sustainable development goals for health - maternal mortality and deaths of newborns and children under 5 years.
”We knew that we wanted to support a health initiative in Africa, but did not know where to start. Social Initiative had the experience, know-how and network to identify a high-impact social entrepreneur and worked very methodically to help us find a candidate that fit our selection criteria”, says Fredrik Strömholm, Partner at Impilo.
Social Initiative will track and report progress on key performance indicators and together with Impilo provide strategic support to the Lwala team.
For further information, please contact:
Veronica Byfield Sköld, Partner at Impilo AB
+46 730 733 933
veronica.skold@impilo.se
Caroline Cederlöf, co-founder of Social Initiative
+46 700 910016
caroline@socialinitiative.se
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About Impilo
Impilo is a Swedish investment company focused on long-term investments in healthcare companies active in pharmaceuticals, medical technology, healthcare services and other health-related areas. Impilo strives to increase value of its investments through long-term active ownership and aims to continuously generate returns for its stakeholders. Impilo has a portfolio of diversified investments and may hold an investment as long it deems it to be attractive (which may be for an indefinite period). Impilo's perspective is that the portfolio companies must contribute to a positive development in their fields and thus society in order to be successful long term. Impilo manages over SEK 3.5 billion in capital from leading Nordic and international investors. Larger investors include AP3 (The Third Swedish National Pension Fund), TryghedsGruppen and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Learn more about Impilo at www.impilo.se.