Rinchi
TechInAfrica – Gray Matters Capital, a US investor has just announced its investment in two African startups, Mosabi and Mums Village, after winning the second cohort of GMC Calibrator Program. Mosabi is a mobile learning platform for financial inclusion based on Sierra Leone, West Africa while Mums Village is the leading parenting website originated from Kenya.
The GMC Calibrator Program is a Digital Self-Learning to Earning Accelerator launched by Gray Matters Capital in April last year. The main purpose of the program is to promote self-learning to earning using mobile phones by optimizing user engagement, monetization, and optimization of mobile learning platforms.
Omkar Kulkarni, Program Head at GMC Calibrator, commented, “From an engagement point of view, we saw impact on the lines of 30% increase in monthly retention and 20% increase in revenue for every member of the first cohort we ran from June to December 2018. Three companies of the cohort raised funding during the 6-month engagement while two made it to Google Launchpad and Reliance’s Jio GenNext Accelerator. We are confident of calibrating more such success stories with our March 2019 cohort.”
Speaking about the winning startups, Sierra Leone’s Mosabi produces local animated content that focuses on financial inclusion for underserved communities and connects them to a financial service provider (FSPs) using Android apps. The app is designed for low-bandwidth settings operated in Sierra Leone, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, and Senegal (just launched recently).
Meanwhile, Kenya’s Mums Village is an online platform based in Nairobi. The platform is designed for Kenyan mothers ranging from doulas, doctors, nutritionists, fitness experts, and fellow parents, allowing them to access resources, relevant and localized information, products, and services for pregnant women and mothers across Africa.
The two winning startups from Africa will join seven other startups from India and Vietnam.
“We are excited to welcome Mosabi and Mums Village on-board. Africa is an important market for us at Gray Matters Capital and we are strategically looking to nurture those start-ups, which can create gendered impact with their mobile solutions through our program,” said Kulkarni
