The Gates Foundation announced Monday it will invest $40 million in several African manufacturers to produce and provide access to mRNA vaccines on the continent.

In a release, the foundation said the initiative will build on lessons learned from 20 years of working with vaccine manufacturers to “leverage recent scientific advances to develop low-cost, high-quality health tools that reach more people around the world.”

The $40 million investment will advance a research platform from Quantoom Biosciences that was developed with an early-research Grand Challenges grant made to its parent company, Univercells.