Safermom recently emerged as one of the top six winners of the Internet.org Innovation Challenge in Africa awards. Innovation Village had the chance to talk with the CEO, Adeloye Olanrewaju (CEO & Co Founder) . Here is the interview below. He set up this business with Cletus Ajibade who is also the CTO and Co-founder.
Innovation Village (IV): Tell us about Safermom. How was the idea conceived?
Safermom: SaferMom is a last mile platform for pregnant and new mothers (with babies up to 3 years) in Nigeria. We built Safer Mom to help mothers irrespective of their social status or geographic location ask, share and connect with other experienced mothers & verified doctors, monitor and track their health, vaccination & medication reminders, symptoms, nutrition guides via SMS, voice and web and mobile app Platforms.
The idea behind SaferMom was conceived during my IT in the university. Working with pregnant and new mothers in 2 public health centres, it wasn’t long before I understood their frustration. Most mothers know that it’s hard work giving birth or raising a child in Nigeria. I realized mothers and babies weren’t getting the psychological, social and mental support they needed. We have a huge problem out here and we want to solve it. Nigeria presently contributes of 13-15 of global maternal and child deaths yearly. Out of the 7.2 million birth rates recorded yearly (Unicef 2014 Estimate), we lose 260,000 newborn annually. Unfortunately most causes of preventable when there’s increased access to basic health services.
What has the reception been among women and organizations? What has the adoption rate been? What have been the high points and low points?
Reception has been overwhelming. The trend is also interesting. We realized they are many younger people becoming parents than ever. Vast majority of this circle needs help because they are mostly not prepared for the experience and realities of pregnancy and parenting. I think lowest point was building the MVP. The journey was scary, I literary gave up everything . Luckily, I was prepared because I knew it wasn’t going to be easy but it was going to worth it.
As regards the high points, honestly I don’t have one. I’m a super ambitious person. Irrespective of all the awards and key pointers, I see them as validation rather than high points and I’ve never been carried away. Not in a day! This is my second startup, so I learnt earlier enough that that the journey is always greater the destination. At very milestone we reach my lucky bird whispers “what’s next”
Congrats on your award from Internet.org award. Tell us about this.
Last year, Facebook’s Internet.org launched a campaign to discover, support and accelerate the top innovative startups in Africa working to improve education and economic empowerment. This was in line with Facebook’s vision to creating a more connected world.
SaferMom emerged as the top 6 startups in Africa scooping $50,000 USD in the Impact category. This is coming barely months after getting into GSBI accelerator program and the recognition of our works by the Queen of England at Buckingham palace earlier this year.
What do you intend to do with the cash award?
The cash reward wouldn’t have come at anytime better. The funding will help us further develop our product, enhance user experience and engagement, build distribution channels, customer acquisition and accelerate company’s growth and for hiring. My core team presently has a perfect blend of young, energetic and talented individuals that can take this product to the next level.
Have you had help from private institutions?
We have consistently developed win-win partnerships with reputable private organisations over the past months. We are also looking to partner with more private institutions as we scale our product and services
What are the future plans for Safermom?
SaferMom seeks to build the most inclusive platform to make pregnancy and parenting experience safe and fulfilling in Africa. To make this happen, I realised we have to solve the present notorious distribution around the mother and child space. We have been working hard with the team to make distribution less scattered and build closer ties with entities which are closer to our potential users while we continue to launch features and contents to keep our services more relevant. Although, I don’t know what the future bring but I see us having huge presence in every states in Nigeria and acquiring 100,000 active users on our mobile app platform alone in the next 12-14months. The mother and child care industry holds massive potential and presently valued at $12billion dollar and we’re committed to helping expecting as well as young mothers with children between 0-5 years to make life saving and informed health decisions.
