Startup Story
Alix Willemez is the founder of Mamafrica in Cote d’Ivoire, a business that aims to make life easier in Côte d'Ivoire and to reduce dependence on word-of-mouth by offering consumers innovative and practical online services while supporting the development of local businesses. Today, the whole Mamafrica team works every day, through its different specialized websites, to bring quality information on health, leisure, to promote the employment of quality domestic staff, to highlight reliable real estate agencies and local craftsmen, and to support local NGOs.
LoA spoke to founder Alix Willemez to learn more about her business which was founded in 2020 and her identified gap in the local market.
What does your company do?
Mamafrica's goal is to make life easier in Côte d'Ivoire and to reduce dependence on word-of-mouth by offering consumers innovative and practical online services while supporting the development of local businesses. Its motto is "La Confiance au quotidien"!
Mamafrica Employees
We connect households with domestic workers. Our goal is to find the right person for each client in order to facilitate their daily life and to give a stable and pleasant job for our domestic workers.
Mamafrica Boutique
The online store allows local artisans to sell their products. We support local crafts of all kinds (groceries, fashion, literature etc). We have everything here, and of very good quality! Why import?
Mamafrica Santé
Through this site, we want to help all people living in Côte d'Ivoire to take their health in hand. We have listed all the doctors and patients can put their reviews. We also list the news on health in Africa. We want to extend this site to all French-speaking West Africa.
“Mamafrica's goal is to make life easier in Côte d'Ivoire and to reduce dependence on word-of-mouth by offering consumers innovative and practical online services while supporting the development of local businesses.”
What inspired you to start your company?
When I first arrived in Côte d'Ivoire, I was quite lost. Google was unable to help me. Word of mouth or Facebook and WhatsApp groups were indispensable. This was where I could find answers to my questions: where to get my children vaccinated? Where to find local tea? Where to find a housewife? I confided in my mother, who lived in Africa for 10 years, and she said "in my day, it was the same but without Facebook and WhatsApp!" I received an electroshock! Nothing had changed in 30 years? I think my blood ran cold and I immediately got to work. I thought and imagined the best ways to facilitate the daily life of people living in Côte d'Ivoire.
Why should anyone use your service or product?
We seek to create a relationship of trust between all stakeholders around Mamafrica. This trust is the pillar of our company and what allows us to offer a quality service to everyone, sellers as well as customers, employees as well as employers.
Tell us a little about your team
Aya is the first employee of Mamafrica. She is in charge of customer relations and is a bridge between employers and employees. Her strength lies in her willingness to always satisfy the needs of her interlocutors. I then hired Christelle, a great content writer. She helps develop the editorial line. For an online business, social networks are essential. That's where our community manager Ivan comes in. Ivan masters’ social networks to perfection and has greatly participated in our emergence on Instagram, Facebook, etc. Finally, following my return to France, I needed a local relay to meet our various partners. That's how I recruited Anas, a French-Moroccan student who knows West Africa very well.
“We seek to create a relationship of trust between all stakeholders around Mamafrica. This trust is the pillar of our company and what allows us to offer a quality service to everyone.”
“Our goal is to develop our services in West Africa, especially our health site to help as many people as possible.”
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
I don't come from an entrepreneurial background. I have worked a lot in international institutions. My initial objective was really to help Ivorians in my own way. It is later that I understood that Mamafrica could become a real business and that's how I got into entrepreneurship.
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
Our goal is to develop our services in West Africa, especially our health site to help as many people as possible.
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
Mamafrica was created to help people, this is what makes us happy today, to be able to help so many people with our services. Beyond that, working in a hyper active start-up environment with motivated people is a great source of happiness.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Just do it and trust yourself.
Contact or follow Mamafrica
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | EMAIL a.willemez@gmail.com
Why LoA loves it…
We always say at Lionesses of Africa that if you can find a gap in the market where you can provide the necessary services, products, skills and expertise, then you have the basis for a successful business. For Alix Willemez, that gap was for the provision of information and connectivity to key services online for those struggling to know where to access them in Cote d’Ivoire. She is building a successful business model by giving clients what they need, and helping local service providers to find clients for their offerings - a win-win. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa