Middle East

Healthcare, Human Security, Urban and Local Needs

• Founded in 2016
• Funding total: $4 million; most recently won $3 million from the IBM Watson AI XPRIZE in 2021
• Revenue growth from 2020 to 2021: 50%
• Investors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Innovative Vector Control Consortium, Sight
• HQ: Tel Aviv
• FTEs: 1-10
• Key clients/partners: the governments of Kenya, Zanzibar, and São Tomé and Príncipe

According to the World Health Organisation, more than 627,000 people died of malaria in 2019. While nearly half the world’s population lives in areas at risk of malaria transmission, approximately 97% of those deaths were in Africa. Malaria takes an economic toll as well. Direct annual costs (e.g., illness, treatment, premature death) have been estimated at a minimum of $12 billion. 

Zzapp Malaria has developed a software platform that helps inform malaria elimination strategies. Their app, which can work offline, analyses satellite images and topographical maps using artificial intelligence to determine malaria transmission hotspots. It then optimises malaria elimination strategies in these locations. These initiatives typically involve using a chemical spray to control the mosquito population, which is responsible for spreading malaria.

The company calls their algorithms “AI with mud on its boots” because the platform works in tandem with experts on the ground. However, the usefulness of the platform extends from out in the field to in the lab. In collaboration with Zzapp, data scientists from IBM have developed a weather analysis model that allows for users to better time interventions and determine the resources required to implement them.

Complete the malaria elimination operation they launched in the island nation of São Tomé and Príncipe.

Governments looking to eradicate malaria, and international organisations interested in helping.