Linda Ng'ondu, a Kenyan entrepreneur and founder of Dial A Pad, is another remarkable woman entrepreneur on our list.

In Kenya, period poverty has created a huge barrier for girls to pursue an education. A staggering seven out of ten girls miss up to a week of schooling every month due to their inability to access sanitary pads. For some, this desperate need results in the unfortunate practice of transactional sex for pads, where girls must exchange sexual favors just to obtain basic menstrual hygiene products.

Linda shares her motivation to act: “The realization that in the 21st century there still lay inequalities in access to menstrual hygiene products and fundamental sexual reproductive health rights.”

Linda made it her mission to end period poverty in Kenya and make menstrual hygiene products more accessible to girls. To do this, she launched Dial A Pad, a startup that develops smart sanitary towel dispensers that provide full packets of sanitary towels to girls in need.

She and her team have taken part in two Seedstars Programs, develoPPP Ventures Cohort 3 as well as the Women Entrepreneurship for Africa (WE4A) program run by SAFEEM, the non-profit branch in the Seedstars Group.

Through the capacity building and grant funding opportunities of these programs, Linda was able to overcome the biggest challenges she was facing to grow her business. She remarked: “Seedstars equipped me with the hard skills necessary for a successful startup. They taught me the fundamentals and all the ways we can ensure the sustainability of our business.” The training as well as the connection with her peers enabled her to build a strong foundation for a successful startup, grow her assets, and increase her company valuation.

After implementing various go-to-market strategies and sales models with the help of experimentation methodology she learned with Seedstars, Linda was able to increase her customer base from 10,000 to over 35,000 school girls as well as build a waitlist of over 209 schools interested in receiving Dial A Pad’s services.

The funding and support from WE4A enabled Linda to raise an additional $200,000 in investment, and with that money, she was able to purchase machines for improved product quality and production capacity. She also hired more skilled engineers and software developers to further digitize her processes.

Linda's success as an entrepreneur transcended far beyond her own business. Her determination to provide accessible menstrual hygiene products for girls has also made an impact on other aspects of their lives. The accessibility of menstrual pads has resulted in an increase in academic performance among girls as well as a reduction in teenage pregnancies in the schools where Dial A Pad operates.

“Our efforts ensure gender equality and equal access to quality education for the girls so that they can escape the vicious cycle of poverty,” Linda said.

Linda Ng'ondu’s story is a true testament to the power of women entrepreneurship. She has managed to turn her vision into reality, making a lasting impact on thousands of girls in Kenya. Her inspiring journey shows that with the right tools and resources, anything is possible.

For more information about the Seedstars Programs mentioned here, you may visit WE4A here and develoPPP Ventures here. Learn more about Dial A Pad here.