Welcome to Sati - Sourcing Africa to Invest

👋🏾 Marge and Ona here!

We’re both Ugandan 🇺🇬

And through our work at Benue Capital, we’re on a mission to support Uganda’s tech ecosystem and invest in extraordinary founders across Sub-Saharan Africa.

We write Sati to uncover Africa’s history of tech and private investment to understand the present and predict the future.

Join us; let’s see where this ride takes us 🚌

This is part 3 of our series on FemTech in Africa.

If you’re new here and want to catch up, check out Part 1 and Part 2.

Today, we’re excited to share the story of a remarkable founder who has made a significant impact in this field.

Meet Shamim Nabuuma Kalisa

Founder of CHIL Femtech Center

Early Life

Born in Masaka, Uganda, Shamim completed primary school locally and then moved to Kampala for her secondary education.

All along, her parents believed the best path for her would be to become a doctor, so she began her Bachelor’s degree in Medicine (Surgery) at Makerere University.

During her time in University, she spent a lot of time in the cancer institute serving patients.

When she realised that many people in rural areas didn’t have access to such care, she started looking for ways to help.

Her search involved getting connected to corporations and contacts in business.

And this exposure shaped the beginning of her mobile cancer screening clinic.

Building a Mobile Cancer Screening Clinic

The venture seemed simple to the naked eye: it would involve setting up tents in rural communities for people to come for screenings.

But A LOT happened behind the scenes.

1. Obtaining a customer base

   Rather than marketing to individuals, Shamim worked with women’s groups across the country to gather large numbers for screenings.

2. Building a team

   Shamim couldn't do this alone. She recruited her friends, both nurses and doctors. Some volunteered; others required some form of compensation.

3. Training the team

   They started with breast and cervical cancer screening.

   Equipment had to be sanitized, patients handled with care and given accurate information, and specimens properly labeled to ensure each patient received the correct diagnosis.

4. Transporting the team and equipment

   She traveled with 2-3 nurses or doctors in a van with lab equipment.

   When not on site, she kept equipment where she stayed and in a store.

5. Financing the venture

   As you can imagine, this all cost money.

   As a student with little savings and no collateral for a bank loan, she relied on patience and mutually beneficial deals with team members.

   She also got partners that supported women’s initiatives.

   But she needed more funding to make this work.

Initial Funding and Mentorship

Shamim looked for capital, mostly on Google.

She stumbled across the Tony Elumelu Foundation fellowship. Businesses or ideas under 5 years could apply for $5,000 seed capital, mentorship, and business management training. The program would last 3 months and capital would be deployed after completion.

Without a second thought, Shamim applied.

While she was in class one afternoon, she received her acceptance email!

The program taught Shamim how to pitch, sell, and package her solution. She used the $5K to market, brand, and invest in resources for her clinic.

Roadblocks to Growth

The mobile clinic model had slim margins and was capital intensive, making it impossible to sustain.

Since Shamim’s target market (women in rural areas) did not generally have internet access, she assembled a field marketing team to find women’s groups that needed screening.

Women would pay a small fee upfront for their screenings. Gathering funds could take several months, but groups had to pay in full before Shamim deployed the mobile clinic.

On arrival, many people who hadn’t paid would show up requesting to be screened. While Shamim wanted to help, as a business owner, she could only serve paying customers. Instead, she’d encourage folks who hadn’t paid to come to her next site visit.

Additionally, many wanted services they hadn’t originally paid for. Popular requests included blood pressure and diabetes scans. However, the team was not equipped to provide this care.

Moreover, there were logistics and weather issues. Uganda doesn’t have the best roads or transport system, so getting to rural locations is time intensive. Plus, the mobile clinics were held outside. So when it rained, there was no shelter, and a full day could be lost.

Pivoting to a Scalable Business Model

Leveraging Technology by Building a Website

Shamim had to think up a scalable way to screen for cancer.

But her time was limited. Medical students are in class all day.

It was her 4th year, and when not in class, she spent a lot of time researching how to monetize businesses. She learned that incorporating technology could change the trajectory of her company.

So, she started a website on Wix that would allow people to set up telemedicine consultations with doctors.

An Opportunity She Couldn’t Pass Up - The GSEA

While searching online for funding, Shamim came across the Global Student Entrepreneur Awards (GSEA) that were being held in Macau, China. She applied with her mobile cancer screening startup and telemedicine website and was accepted.

When she broke the news to her parents, like most, they shared concerns about the impact on her education, as participating meant she’d miss some school.

But Shamim recognized this as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. The trip was fully funded, so she went!

In Macau, she found fellow Africans as well as people from all over the world.

Shamim pitched her tech-enabled solution—the only one from an African candidate.

And sure enough, she won the African category.

A Spark of Inspiration - Building the Keti App, an AI Chatbot

During her time in Macau, Shamim met a 16-year-old boy from Slovakia who had invented a device to detect why babies cry—a project inspired by his niece.

His technology left her in awe.

Among all the incredible ideas in the program, his stood out. His age and innovative spirit sparked something in Shamim, influencing how she approached building her own product.

She went on to develop the Keti App, an AI-powered chatbot integrated into her website.

This was her first foray into AI.

The chatbot enabled patients to share their names and issues via SMS. The app would analyse symptoms, provide referrals, and even scheduled appointments with the appropriate doctor.

This expanded Shamim’s reach, allowing even patients without internet access to benefit. She extended the solution to rural clinics and local schools that had nurses but didn’t always have doctors on site.

She monetized this product right away!

Raising Financing through A Google Pitch Drive Across Asia

Shortly after returning from China, Shamim discovered another opportunity: a Google-hosted pitch drive across Asia. She applied and was accepted alongside 10 other Africans.

The drive involved pitching to investors across the region, with Google providing coaching on pitching, storytelling, and product development.

The experience paid off. Shamim secured significant financing to scale further.

Returning Home

Shamim’s travels to China and across Asia caused her to miss quite a bit of school. Therefore, she needed more time to meet her graduation requirements.

Balancing academics with her entrepreneurial passion was no small feat, but she mastered time management to keep both on track.

COVID restrictions also worked in her favor, providing the time and space she needed to complete her studies while continuing to grow her business, which she later officially called CHIL Femtech Center.

Winning Awards and Establishing a Brand Presence

Shamim received several awards along the way.

Amazon recognized her as one of the few African women using AI in healthcare, and Bloomberg Media named her among the women worldwide using tech to influence their communities.

It was during this time she realized the importance of media. She started putting herself out there, building on her ~15K X (formerly Twitter) following.

Expanding Beyond Uganda

CHIL Femtech took its first steps outside Uganda by expanding into Kenya.

However, it was the move into Tanzania that led to a breakthrough—a new business model that transformed the trajectory of the company.

The CHIL Femtech Online Health Marketplace

Shamim’s earlier creation, the Keti App, was already helping patients share medical concerns, identify symptoms, receive referrals, and schedule appointments.

In Tanzania, she expanded the apps capabilities and made it the centrepiece of her online, hub-and-spoke health marketplace. Rural clinicians, nurses in school sick bays, and patients could all leverage the app to make informed diagnostic decisions and get the patient in front of the right practitioner for a telemedicine consultation.

In rural areas, where healthcare often relies on semi-skilled nurses, self-medication, and limited lab testing, the Keti App proved to be extremely valuable.

This model functions like a bicycle wheel: the hub represents CHIL’s partner hospitals, while the spokes symbolize partner local clinics and school sickbays.

It is a distribution network that ensures efficient delivery of healthcare services to underserved areas, enabling patients in remote locations to receive medical attention and consultations through the network of spokes.

Implementing the Model

To make this system work, rural clinics and school sickbays are equipped with telemedicine tools compatible with the Keti AI chatbot. Nurses are trained to use the technology and ensure patients can connect with doctors for e-consultations if required.

For lab tests, samples are collected at the spoke and either analyzed locally or sent to the hub or partner labs. Results are then uploaded to the patient’s electronic medical records (EMR) for doctors to review and prescribe treatment.

Prescriptions can be picked up at the spoke or ordered from the hub or a partner pharmacy.

The Impact of the Model

This hub-and-spoke model demonstrates how healthcare can effectively reach even the most remote communities. It benefits both patients and healthcare providers while promoting sustainability by reducing unnecessary travel and lowering emissions.

To date, CHIL Femtech has delivered over 4 million consultations and currently has 1,030 health centers and schools connected to their three modern hubs for emergency care.

Though it began as a cancer screening mobile clinic, CHIL has grown to offer a wide range of specialized services, including:

1. Cardiology

2. Oncology

3. Neurology

4. Endocrinology

5. Nephrology

6. Urology

7. Pediatrics

8. Obstetrics and Gynecology

9. School Telemedicine

The platform also has a few other functionalities, including training health practitioners on WHO guidelines and disaster relief, such as floods and drought.

How does she do it?

Listen, if there's one thing you should take away from reading this piece, it's that Shamim is one of a kind.

What sets her apart is her persistence and consistency. Her current state didn’t dawn upon her overnight.

From the beginning, Shamim understood what it would take to get here, and she’s patiently navigated the journey, learning from peers and those that have been where she wants to be.

Use her story as inspiration for how you can go about building and making change in an area you’re passionate about.

That’s all we have for you this week!

Thanks so much for making it to the end!

If there’s anything else you’d like us to explore, send us a note. We’d love to hear from you! You can find us on:

• Twitter: Marge, Ona

• LinkedIn: Marge, Ona

• Email (Reply to this email)

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