Arabic online content platform Omooma secures $2.5m in funding

Omooma, the Arabic-language online content producer and provider dedicated to pregnancy, maternity and motherhood, has secured $2.5m in initial funding from E20 Investment.

E20, a new UAE-based investment company, will remain the sole investor in the startup and has committed to further funding for future growth.

The platform offers Arab women a extensive library of in-depth blogs and 250 high-quality video courses, featuring advice by a roster of 29 Arab medical, lifestyle, wellbeing and financial experts from across the region. Omooma aims to increase its experts to over 40 by the end of 2022.

Romain Ollivier, co-founder and CEO of Omooma, said: “Omooma’s educational content equips young Arab women with the knowledge and critical information they need throughout their motherhood journey, from the comfort of their home. It helps women better deal with topics that they are embarrassed to discuss with family and friends and prefer to receive from a professional. In addition, the platform also enhances the volume of professionally curated and created science-based Arabic content available online.”

Omooma’s content is relevant to a population estimated at 4.5 million annually of expectant or young women across the entire GCC, Levant, Egypt and other Arabic-speaking countries including Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia among others. The target audience also includes Arab women in countries such as the US and Canada.

“Omooma isn’t only relevant to pregnant women or young mothers. It is also appealing to parents of teenagers who want to understand the changes to their children’s bodies. It will also feature parenting courses not just for babies but also for bigger kids, young adults and so on. We want to be the go-to platform when it comes to motherhood and parenting topics,” said Pierre Gillet, co-founder of Omooma.

Currently, the platform features over 15 hours of video content that includes 21 courses and over 250 videos with an average duration of between two to eight minutes.  The platform plans to double the volume of its exclusive content by the end of 2022.

The price for the courses depends according to the topic, length of the video and other variables and ranges from $28-$165.

Charles Dalle, the platform’s co-founder, said: “In addition to the educational content, Omooma will also act as a community for Arab women who want to exchange ideas, get answers and raise queries regarding conception, pregnancy, labour, baby care, motherhood and any other aspect of their health and lifestyle impacted by the birth of a baby. Members of the community get access to live webinars hosted by field experts to discuss the various topics related to motherhood in the Arab world.”

The startup also plans to offer itsmotherhood video courses for use by hospitals, clinics and medical practitioners as well as companies and organisations for their female patients or employees.

Omooma plans to target 10,000 paid customers by the end of 2022 out of a potential pool of 300,000 active users.