Parental control app designed for African families

The project

A mobile parental control app, designed in Benin for African families. The tool lets a parent monitor and manage their child’s use of a phone: screen time per app, filtering of unsuitable content, permitted time slots, alerts when a sensitive app is installed.

The product is in its launch phase. The company is registered and the founding team is working on bringing the first public version to market.

Why this market, here and now

Three underlying trends intersect. The first is equipment: in a decade, the smartphone has become the standard family computer in West Africa, often the only one. The second is the age of first use: children get a device earlier and earlier, usually a second-hand handset passed down from an adult, and therefore with no protection settings. The third is awareness — parents are worried, but the tools available do not speak to them well.

That is where the project’s space lies. The solutions installed by default on phones are designed for a Western household: English interface, payment by bank card, one device per child. The Beninese context is different — a phone passes between several hands, payment is made by mobile money, and the parent who sets it up is not always the one most at ease with the tool. An app designed for this reality has no direct local competitor.

Business model

Monthly or annual subscription per household, paid by mobile money, with a limited free version as a way in. Two distribution channels are envisaged beyond direct download: private schools, which can offer the tool to families, and telecom operators, for whom this kind of service is a subscription argument.

Use of funds

The raise of 10 million FCFA aims to fund the commercial launch: finalising and testing the public version, publishing on app stores, a campaign to acquire the first households, and setting up customer support able to reply in French and in local languages.

What the investor should look at

The decisive point is not the technology — parental control is a well-charted field — but the ability to turn a worry into a paid subscription. A savvy investor will ask to see, before any commitment, the cost of acquiring a household over the first months of operation and the renewal rate in the second month. These two figures do not yet exist: the product is not on sale.