Lagos-based startup mytoddlr, which has developed a mobile communication tool allowing parents to stay abreast of their child’s welfare while at school, is planning expansion across Nigeria and beyond as it witnesses growth in usage and revenues.
mytoddlr is a mobile communication and collaboration application that helps busy parents interface with their child’s pre-school or creche throughout the day.
Via a real-time feed, parents receive information on their child’s activity throughout the day, and are able to track milestones and new habits. Parents can enrol authorised adults to pick up their child, and receive alerts when they are picked up or dropped off. Reminders can be set, pictures and videos can be sent, while parents also have access to certain “child analytics”.
Molawa Adesuyi, co-founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of mytoddlr, told Disrupt Africa the platform was an entirely new way for parents to stay in touch with their kids.
“Parents no longer have to worry as they receive real-time feeds of their child’s daily activities right to their mobile phones, whether they are at work, at home or even away on holiday,” he said.
The idea for mytoddlr was born out of personal experiences.
“My colleague’s mum was pregnant, and she is a busy manager at a big firm. How was she supposed to keep up with her professional obligations and also give adequate attention to her growing toddler?” Adesuyi said.
“We were already in the education space, previously running an ed-tech startup, so we immediately knew there were no tools out there to help her with this problem. But this was just one mother with this problem, and you cannot start a business based on just one person’s problem. So we decided to talk to more parents, and to our surprise we discovered this was a problem faced by many parents in urban areas.”
Adesuyi said mytoddlr was looking to assist the growing amount of working parents, struggling to remain updated on their child’s welfare while they are in school.
“We deliver peace of mind to these parents, by helping them easily track their child’s development and daily activities, share important memorable moments in their child’s life, ensure their little one’s security and easily communicate with the pre-school or crèche,” he said.
The startup, which is bootstrapped and funded by family and friends, has seen impressive uptake. Over 1,500 have signed up for the subscription-based service in Lagos alone, and mytoddlr is gaining revenues from users that remain on the service after their free 30-day trial period. Expansion is now on the agenda.
“Abuja is next in the first quarter of next year. We are looking to expand beyond the Nigerian market into other African cities by the second quarter of next year,” Adesuyi said.
