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Female Inventors

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An Nisais an online taxi-hailing service in Kenya run by women that serves female passengers and young children only.

Mehnaz Sarwar (Photo: An Nisa)

An Nisa was founded by Mehnaz Sarwar and she inspired by how she and many women who used cabs in Nairobi were uncomfortable getting into vehicles with unfamiliar men. She said:

“I was always uncomfortable being in a car with someone I didn’t know, especially if it was a male. So I was always in search of a female driver. I realized that a lot of ladies are still in that position.”

Mehnaz started An Nisa to cater to women not just as passengers, but also behind the wheel. Susan Cherotich, one of over 50 female drivers who has signed up on the platform, says it is different from other platforms she has worked for:

“It is long overdue. Now that we have our own app, we run it and especially for us, it is more empowering.”

(Photo: An-Nisa)

And it is, because An Nisa only takes a 10% commission, compared to the 15% to 25% taken by other platforms like Uber and Taxify.

Susan adds:

“Now that the commissions are lower, we’ll be able to earn a bit more. And because most of the riders are ladies, should they all embrace this app, we’ll be able to earn more out of it.”

 

(Photo: An Nisa)

 

Credit: konbini.com

From time to time, parents might find themselves telling their children to put away a soccer ball and stop playing. Now, thanks to an innovation by Jessica Mathews Company ,  Uncharted Play, those same parents might be encouraging some extra playtime. Uncharted Play has created the SOCCKET, the power-generating soccer ball that literally turns play into energy.

Jessica, a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States, first came up with the idea for the company when visiting Nigeria for a family wedding. When the power went out during the party, her relatives switched on the noisy, noxious diesel generators that have become a way of life for nearly 60 million Nigerians. As we all know by now, only 25 percent of Nigerians have access to regular electricity, and the nation averages 32 eight-hour power outages per month.

This inspired the Harvard graduate to innovate on possible off-grid power solutions. Alongside the SOCCKET ball invention, Uncharted Play is also credited with other innovations such as PULSE, an emergency battery charging jump rope. Both products use Uncharted Play’s proprietary M.O.R.E. (Motion-based, Off-Grid, Renewable Energy) technology to harness power generated by minutes of play to create hours of electricity.

She believes that people should not have to be restricted to being connected to walls to have access to power and has been making great strides in converting kinetic energy to usable electricity.

Though her company is based in New york, she has revealed plans to spread her power solutions to other parts of the world including Africa, and with the recent 7 million dollar funding she has just received, She just might get her wish.

The $7 million investment in Uncharted Play makes Matthews the 13th black female founder who has raised more than $1 million in outside investment.

In the tech ecosystem, black female founders receive basically zero venture capital. Of the several thousand venture deals that went down from 2012 to 2014, less than 1 percent of them went to black women. This goes to highlight just how much of landmark this is for Jessica Matthews and all African American women in the renewable energy sphere.

Some might argue that Mathews is yet to truly create a lasting solution to most of the world’s power struggles but at 28 years old one would be foolish to bet against her achieving that in the nearest future.

In an interview when she was questioned about comparisons with her schoolmate – a certain Mark Zuckerburg, she emoted, saying

“I said to them, ‘I just have to come clean; I don’t know if I can do this. Zuckerberg and I went to the same school, but we grew up in a totally different experiences, He is much more like them (silicon valley type). They won’t understand me. They won’t understand the experience.”

She further explained that personal experiences and struggles give birth to solutions. Zuckerberg could not have invented SOCCKET,   because his struggle was he could not get a date while at Harvard. Meanwhile, Matthews’ solution is based her own family’s struggle with energy issues in Nigeria.