ASU startup G3Box prepares to ship first maternity clinic to Africa

G3Box, part of ASU’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative based at ASU SkySong, has reached a significant milestone for their young company. Over the past two years, G3Box has been working to successfully create and develop a solution for delivering quality health care to communities that do not currently have access to it. The hard work is paying off. 

G3Box’s first clinic is complete and – in collaboration with IMEC America – is ready to be shipped to Kenya. The clinic, the equipment and the logistics are in place to send this life saving clinic to Kenya; now all that is needed are the final funds to get it shipped and installed. G3Box has launched a campaign on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo to help secure the funds needed to send their first container to Kenya.

G3Box, a company dedicated to passionately pursuing solutions to health care concerns around the world with a commitment to integrity, humility, and collaboration, repurposes abandoned shipping containers into portable, on-demand medical clinics. The first application of their clinics is to address the crisis of maternal fatalities in the developing world.  Kenya has an incredibly high mortality rate among birthing mothers, which is why G3Box founders are shipping their first clinic there. There are women in the developing world who currently give birth on dirt floors in unsanitary and dangerous conditions. The Indiegogo campaign was launched to help G3Box raise the capital needed to get their container on the ground in Kenya to provide safer, healthier places for women to access maternal care.

The goal of G3Box’s crowdfunding campaign is to raise $17,650, and there are less than 10 days left to donate to the cause. G3’s campaign has already sparked incredible community involvement and support. Scottsdale, Ariz. based Axosoft contributed substantially to the campaign. After Hamid Shojaee, Axosoft CEO, saw the campaign from a friends post on Facebook, he quickly encouraged his employees to contribute with the incentive that Axosoft would match each donation 4:1.

"I recently came back from a vacation to Africa, one of the most amazing places I have visited,” said Shojaee. “During this vacation we went to a local village and witnessed first-hand how beneficial a simple health clinic could be to Africa's poor communities. It's the type of thing that actually saves lives. It is not just for research in the hope for an eventual cure that might someday save lives – these clinics actually save lives using simple technologies we already have in the modern world."

“Our team was very humbled to see the generosity from Axosoft and the rest of our supporters. G3Box has had more than 90 contributors to our campaign so far,” Susanna Young, CEO and co-founder of G3Box said. “Ultimately, our goal is to save and sustain lives in developing countries. Getting the word out about this campaign to support the installation of our first clinic in Kenya is just the beginning.”

G3Box is fully utilizing the new and unique concept of crowdfunding. On their campaign site there is a brief introduction video that explains their background and plans for the clinic. They have also been able to create incentives and special programs to encourage donations  Most recently, G3Box created a “Mother’s Day” perk on their campaign page. Donors are able to contribute funds in honor of their mothers and G3Box will send a personal email message to that mother informing her of the donation made in her honor.

“Indiegogo has made sharing the campaign very easy,” said Young. “It is an excellent way to get the word out about the G3Box efforts, in addition to facilitating the donation process.”

G3Box has been supported in their venture acceleration by ASU’s Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative. The Edson Accelerator helps students from all university disciplines accelerate their ventures by providing funding, office space and mentorship. G3Box is one of twenty-five student ventures that were awarded support for the 2012-2013 academic year. The Edson Student Entrepreneur Initiative is a part of ASU’s Venture Catalyst program within the Office of Knowledge Enterprise Development.

The idea for G3Box initially emerged from student endeavors in the Engineering Projects in Community Service (EPICS) program in ASU’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering.