Global Alliance Africa ‘More than a Woman’ Showcase 2023 Finalist: Mahlodi Letsie
In Sandton, South Africa on 8 March 2023, Global Alliance Africa celebrated International Women’s Day and hosted the ‘More than a Woman’ Showcase with an exciting project pitch session where women innovators would share their ideas with a gathering of investors, ecosystem enablers, and support organisations from across the UK and Africa, to help them scale their solutions to the world. Mahlodi Letsie, Founder and CEO, Bare Mind Holdings was one of four finalists and the Africa team are delighted to present her story.
Background
Mahlodi found herself in a vulnerable space one day following unfortunately being laid off from work and needed support which she would have usually been able to find within family members back home. What she discovered however, during the pandemic and from losing work themselves, was that her family members had their own mental wellbeing struggles which took all their energy and there was none left for anything or anyone else. As a result of this, Mahlodi started researching mental health within South Africa and the reality of the increasing issues such as anxiety and depression and how commonplace they were, and so Bare Mind was born out of a need to offer support to youths battling mental health challenges.
Problem
So many people are struggling on a daily basis with mental health. Due to the stigmatisation of talking about it, some people feel they are not able to openly communicate with anyone or express how they feel without negative attitudes, additional anxiety or risk of being put down and placed in an even more vulnerable state which worsens mental health of the individual and could deteriorate their potential treatment. It is essential to create a safe space, a supportive environment and one which respects and recognises their unique issues and provides necessary care and support.
Solution
Bare Mind is not just an app, it’s an end-to-end ecosystem that creates multiple streams of revenue beyond the Bare Mind App. Our e-commerce extension houses sustainable holistic wellness and lifestyle products that are ethically sourced. Bare Mind Conversations is our brand awareness initiative that uses storytelling to raise awareness of mental health best practices, generating revenue through brand deals, sponsorships, and partnerships. Bare Mind Events provides both live events and online webinars, and creates an immersive experience in a retreat setting that allows clients to have additional face time with our database of partnered health and wellness professionals.
At Bare Mind, they have a vision to become the biggest health and wellness platform in Africa by 2030. With an innovative approach and commitment to promoting mental wellness, they believe they have the potential to transform the lives of millions of people across the continent and globally eventually.
On behalf of Global Alliance Africa – We wish Mahlodi and her team continued success in the future.
For more information on Mahlodie Letsie, visit:
Related programmes
Global Alliance Africa
This Innovate UK Global Alliance Africa 6-year (2019-2025) project funded by UK International Development aims to build new and stronger UK-African partnerships to maximise the creation of inclusive market access, funding and investment opportunities through innovation knowledge transfer between the UK, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
Women in Innovation
Innovate UK’s Women in Innovation programme was launched in 2016 to address underrepresentation of women in business innovation and to encourage more of them to apply to Innovate UK’s funding opportunities.