This is Babymigo; the “Genius” Company Aiming to Reduce Infant Mortality Rate by 45%

Every new pregnancy and child upbringing presents unique experiences and challenges. Faced with these challenges, people tend to have a lot of questions and can get desperate while looking for answers. Their desperation often leads them to make choices which are usually far from the best. Yet, they would rather have expert advice or at least opinions from people who overcame the same challenges.

Babymigo is a platform that is connecting mothers and young parents with the right community for support and advice. Developed for web and android, Babymigo makes parenting and medical advice accessible anywhere and anytime. Through the platform, users can discover experts and experienced mothers to guide them through challenges.

Babymigo Comes With A Bundle of Features

The Babymigo platform supports a number of interesting activities. It allows users ask questions and get answers quickly from other users and verified medical practitioners. It also supports chatting, allowing users to interact directly with the experts. Furthermore, users can filter discussions and search for users or mothers within a particular age group or location.

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— Juliet Ehimuan (@jehimuan) March 22, 2018

The platform also allows users book appointments just as it provides information about events and pregnancy classes. Plus there’s access to plenty of articles and resources about child care and pregnancy. It is an all in one package.

Babymigo was launched in 2017 by Adeloye Olanrewaju. As a graduate of medical physiology at LAUTECH, Olarenwaju has a background in healthcare. Before Babymigo, he launched SaferMom, a platform dedicated to providing pregnant women and nursing mothers with vital information via SMS.

During the three years he ran SaferMom, he acquired quite a reputation and by 2016, he was a recipient of the British Queen’s Young Leaders Award. He would later launch to Babymigo which is quite broader and more encompassing than SaferMom.

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— Babymigo (@my_babymigo) August 7, 2018

Speaking about his purpose Olanrewaju says, “we’re building the most trusted support network for moms and moms-to-be irrespective of their social status or geographic location. We want to reach five million mothers over the next three years and so help reduce avoidable infant deaths.”

About Babymigo’s ambition he says the goal is to “empower 50 million parents to raise healthy families by 2020, thereby reducing avoidable maternal and infant mortality by 45%.”

Funding and Traction

Since its launching in 2017, the company has amassed over 30,000 downloads on App stores. It also has over 90,000 registered users and a database of over 30,000 questions and answers.

There isn’t much information about Babymigo’s funding history. However, in July 2018, the startup was selected for the first ever Google LaunchPad Accelerator Africa programme. As a cohort, the startup got $10,000 equity free funding. On its website, the startup also lists Facebook as one of its sponsors.

Excited and humbled to have Babymigo listed as one of Time magazine 50 Genius Companies 2018 inventing the future.
Other companies that made the list are Amazon, Netflix, Nike, Dominos, paytm, slack, pinteresthttps://t.co/93JBepfWo0 pic.twitter.com/weUHopjyMz

— Babymigo (@my_babymigo) October 4, 2018

Recently, the startup was listed alongside big names likes Apple, Amazon, Netflix, SpaceX and Pinterest as one of Time Magazine’s 50 Genius Companies of 2018. What an accomplishment.

But beyond these traction, the two year old startup has quite a number of challenges ahead. As a web and mobile app platform, the startup may not reach the large number of women in need of the service. Rural women lack access to good health care services and are forced to resort to home treatment as drugs and medical services are both physically and financially out of reach. Internet access is also one challenge rural people face and many have not made the switch to smartphones and newer devices. This effectively cuts them out of Babymigo’s reach.

Nevertheless, with experience developing the largely offline SaferMom startup, Adeloye Olanrewaju understands these challenges. You won’t be wrong to expect the “genius” company to address them soon.