Kenyan Startup Drop Access Wins $250,000 Grand Prize

Kenyan health-startup Drop Access has won a grand prize of $250,000 in this year’s Cisco Global Problem Solver Challenge for its innovation VacciBox.

VacciBox is a portable solar fridge that can be mounted on a motorbike, bicycle, or boat, to safely store and transport vaccines, drugs, and blood for transfusion to remote, hard-to-reach and off-grid rural communities.

The solution is also IoT-enabled; integrated with a communication and digital component that collects data in real time and stores it on a cloud. This ensures that vaccines are kept in the best storage conditions and can be traced, to promote effective healthcare programs in rural communities.

Cisco’s Global Problem Solver Challenge is an annual competition for early-stage tech entrepreneurs solving the world’s most challenging problems. This year’s contest generated nearly 1,200 submissions from teams in 99 countries with Drop Access emerging as the winner.

“This year’s competition generated nearly 1,200 submissions from teams in 99 countries. From this amazing array of teams and ideas, 15 winning teams were selected from 10 countries, including five not represented among previous winners: Australia, Colombia, Denmark, Ireland, and Pakistan. We are also thrilled to report that 67 per cent of our 2022 winners have a woman founder,” Francine Katsoudas, Cisco Executive Vice President and Chief People, Policy & Purpose Officer said.

Since 2017 Cisco’s Global Problem Solver Challenge has awarded $3.25 million to 78 start-ups in 25 countries.

Here is a list of Cisco’s Global Problem Solver Challenge 2022 winners