The Africa Visionary Fund has generously granted a $225,000 to HelpMum, a Nigerian health technology firm, significantly advancing its aim of using technology to enhance healthcare for mothers and infants. Dr. Abiodun Adereni, the startup’s founder and CEO, disclosed that HelpMum is one of the 12 visionary partners chosen for the Africa Visionary Fund’s fourth cohort.
Abiodun Adereni, a Tony Elumelu Foundation alumnus, created HelpMum in 2017, headquartered in Ibadan. HelpMum has been resolute in its use of mobile technology to reduce the rates of maternal and newborn mortality. The firm is reshaping healthcare for expectant mothers and nursing moms throughout Africa by using cutting-edge technology like artificial intelligence (AI).
Unrestricted grant financing is provided by the Africa Visionary Fund, which is well-known for assisting high-impact social entrepreneurs in Africa in expanding their influence. Dr. Adereni underlined HelpMum’s dedication to innovation and the application of AI in healthcare solutions as he expressed his thanks for being included in this outstanding cohort.
Since its founding in 2017, HelpMum has demonstrated an impressive ability to secure grants without ever needing to turn to venture capital funding. The firm placed in the top three of a Nairobi Health Innovators challenge and received its first grant, which was $5,000. It then got a $5,000 donation from the Tony Elumelu Foundation.
In 2018, HelpMum achieved a noteworthy achievement for the health technology firm when the Google Impact Challenge awarded it a significant grant of $250,000. It was chosen as one of 24 winners in the Facebook Community Accelerator, which covered different regions worldwide, and awarded $250,000 the following year.
Among the four global winners of the 2021 Waislitz Global Citizen Award, HelpMum stood out as the sole African startup amidst the hurdles presented by the epidemic in 2020. In recognition of its excellent COVID-19 reaction work, the startup was awarded $50,000.
HelpMum was recognized in June of that same year as the sole Nigerian startup among 30 global recipients of Google Social Impact Funding; however, the precise sum granted is still unknown. Notably, the startup became the first Nigerian company to get a $250,000 award from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation in September 2022. The money was set aside to help Nigeria implement the AI-Driven Vaccine Intervention Optimizer (ADVISER).
Even while HelpMum has never turned to venture capital investment, it may have amassed over a million dollars in awards. Dr. Adereni credits HelpMum’s significant contributions to this achievement, highlighting the company’s dedication to providing frequent updates and displaying the observable outcomes of its work on a dedicated YouTube channel.
