Egyptian Entrepreneur Nadia Gamal El Din Among 2020 Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Winners

Egyptian entrepreneur and founder Nadia Gamel El Din has been selected as one of the seven winners of the global Cartier’s Women’s Initiative Awards 2020. The annual initiative aims to highlight women entrepreneurs and recognise women-led startups from across the world that are focused on bettering their communities. Each founder received a $100,000 fund for their startups.

El Din is the founder of Egyptian startup Rahet Bally (Arabic for ‘peace of mind’), a platform dedicated to maternal care services and products. What started as a Facebook group back in 2014 after Nadia gave birth to her first child, grew into a holistic platform for mothers to share their daily worries and seek advice from pediatricians, psychologists, nutritionists and professionals in real-time. 

“Right after I gave birth, I experienced feelings of isolation and near panic. I was so lost! None of my friends had babies yet. I’m an only child and my mum couldn’t remember anything. I recall saying to myself; ‘what on earth am I going to do with this baby?’” Gamal El Din tells Startup Scene.

“My experience is all too common, not only in Egypt, but around the world. New mothers need a tremendous amount of support as they heal from giving birth and learn to care for a new baby.”

According to Rahet Bally, the platform now has four million women users from across Egypt. Their services include psychiatric counseling services, fitness advice, babysitting and prenatal counseling for pregnant mums. Their current cornerstone product is the Rahet Bally Card, a premium discount card that grants mothers exclusive access to and deals with health experts. 

Rahet Bally emphasises both the physical and mental health of mothers. Nadia draws from her own personal experience with pregnancy to shed a light on the often brushed up yet incredibly pressing issue. “Up to 20% of new mothers experience postpartum or perinatal depression, which diminishes their ability to cope with the responsibilities of motherhood,” Gamal El Din. ”This intense physical, psychological, emotional, and mental transformation comes with urgent questions, and the isolation of new motherhood can have serious consequences.” 

The most recent endeavour by Rahet Bally is the Cloud, a sort of clubhouse for mums where they can conduct their business in work pods, attend workshops, socialise, join book clubs or even nap in cosy sleeping pods, all the while their children are being cared for by vetted babysitters that are screened by Rahet Bally’s team. The mothers are also able to track their children via babycams placed all across the facility for that extra ease of mind.

While the pandemic can put a temporary brake on this mummy paradise, Rahet Bally continues to persevere amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “Rahet Bally was super agile and flexible in adapting to the current pandemic,” says Gamal El Din. “We shifted all our services online such as our fitness and nutrition programmes like Rahet Bally Fit Mama at Home which sees hundreds of mums tuning in with their kids! Also, our discount card; the Rahet Bally Card, can now be bought and activated online through the Rahet Bally App, instead of delivering physical cards.”

The Cartier win was definitely well-timed to help Rahet Bally not only survive during this pandemic, but to grow. “The Cartier Women’s Initiative win will definitely help us scale,” Gamal El Din adds. “We need to reach every mother out there because she not only deserves the service; she urgently needs it. I believe that a happy mum is a happy baby and a happy family.”

You can check out all of Rahet Bally’s services right here, and you can download the app on iOS and Android.