Denis Opudo
Shaney Vijendranath, a South African entrepreneur is the administrator of Momsays and the blog You, Baby and I. Vijendranath was able to successfully complete two rounds of pitching. She is happy to be shortlisted to join the 2018 cohorts of the Collective Global Accelerator (CGA). Apart from having the chance to represent SA in the global map, she will be able to represent African women who are in the tech scene.
According to her, they had to take part in two rounds of pitching before they were shortlisted. She is among the two selected entrepreneurs from Africa to take part in the accelerator program that is based in London. The accelerator targets to help social entrepreneurs that use technology to solve problems. They do that to help improve their own cities and also improve the growth of their own business.
Charles Lipenge from Malawi was the other African who was selected along Vijendranath. He is the founder of Maestros Leadership Team. The accelerator informed the public through a twit dated back in January 2018 that it had received more than 4,000 applications for 2018 cohorts. The accelerator program will last for a period of four weeks. It will link entrepreneurs to mentors in their different fields. The accelerator will be liable for the payment of all expenses during the four weeks. Participants will also have a chance to take part in an intensive entrepreneurship workshop.
In 2017 the accelerators’ first cohorts often entrepreneurs comprised of South African, Ethiopian and Ghanaian entrepreneurs. This year’s eleven startups will comprise of entrepreneurs from Colombia, Latvia, Vietnam, and Chile. You, Baby and I were founded back in 2014 after Vijendranath becomes a mother for the first time at 21 years of age. She used her experience as a mother to put up the platform. According to her, new mothers did not get the required support more so when it came to getting quality products through online. It was challenging since everything seemed to be of the right quality. This made her yearn for advice from a mother who is not employed in the industry and has been a mother on several occasions.
She adds that after blogging for two consecutive years she realized that the platform was more than just a mere blog. It brought together a group of mothers who had trust towards each other. The platform has won several awards that include Advice and Parenting category which was at the African Blogger Awards in 2016. Recently it won the Best Parenting Blog that was at South African Blog Awards in 2017. Vijendranath says that she had been lucky to partner with a number of biggest brands globally. The brands include LG, Unilever, Samsum, Disney, Mattel, and Volvo.
She partnered with her husband Vije Vijendranath in 2016 to come up with Momsays. This came after seeing a wide gap in the baby sector. Momsays assists brands to engage and sell well to first-time mothers. It does this by using the collective knowledge of many South African experienced mothers. She explains that the startup gives mompreneurs and products an opportunity to engage with consumers directly and partner with other likeminded mompreneurs. This gives them a chance to gain from the best in the sector. She managed to get an undisclosed equity investment from Identity FutureFund. She is now looking forward to launching Momsays’ first phase. She is also aiming at networking with different founders of startups, investors, and mentors at the accelerator. This will come before its Demo day that will take place in June 2018.
