Evelyn Castle is a woman who just doesn’t know when to stop. She has founded multiple social ventures in the technology and health space in Africa. She is best known for her work as Executive Director and Co-Founder of eHealth Africa. eHealth Africa is a leading digital health implementer for Nigeria that was founded and run from Kano, Nigeria – and now has a growing footprint elsewhere in Africa. She also founded EHA Clinics, a private set of clinics providing quality healthcare in Nigeria. Most recently she founded EHA Impact Ventures, an impact investing firm targeting female-owned startups in Africa.
In our conversation today, we talk about Evelyn’s fateful decision to drop out of college in California to pursue her dream in Nigeria. She shares the explosive growth that eHealth Africa experienced – growing by 10X in a single year! – and the kind of pressures that put on the organization to expand and to deliver. She shares how she built a chain of private sector clinics, driven by the need to provide quality care to her growing staff. Finally, we hear Evelyn’s vision for her new impact investing work, and how it will power the next generation of tech founders to do even better.
Show Notes
- EvelynCastle.com: This is Evelyn’s personal home on the internet, including several public blogs that she’s written.
- eHealth Africa is a leading digital health implementer and nonprofit founded and run out of Kano, Nigeria. It’s played a major role in implementing several major digital health programs at scale in Nigeria.
- EHA Clinics: Evelyn also founded EHA Clinics, a set of private-sector clinics providing high-quality healthcare at a reasonable cost in Nigeria.
- EHA Ventures is Evelyn’s latest effort, an impact investing fund targeting female technology founders in Africa.
- The CANS Tech Hub in Abuja: Evelyn’s shoutout goes to the The CANS eco-friendly tech hub in Abuja, Nigeria, which has built “a great business model to support local tech entrepreneurs” – and also manages to do this in a sustainable, climate-friendly way. It was founded by investor and CEO Khalil Halilu.
- Armchair Expert Podcast: Just for fun, Evelyn suggested the podcast Armchair Expert, a podcast that celebrates “the messiness of being human” – digging into the personal affairs of notable people, including many leaders in the aid sector. I listened to their interview with Samantha Power, the Administrator for USAID, and it was chicken soup for the soul for any woman balancing motherhood with a demanding career.
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If you enjoyed Evelyn’s story, you might also enjoy hearing from these other fearless founders:
- Nithya Ramanathan of Nexleaf Analytics
- Erica Layer of D-Tree International