South African entrepreneur Meg Faure won The Big Pitch 2025, receiving a US $1 million prize for her startup, Parent Sense. The app uses AI to assist parents from pregnancy to preschool.
The competition, run by Startup Club Za, is one of the continent’s most prestigious stages for scaling ventures with high-impact potential. Faure’s victory signals more than a personal milestone it underscores Africa’s growing influence in health and education technology innovation.
“We won. Last night still feels surreal,” Faure said in a statement. “Standing on stage alongside two incredible businesses… then hearing our name called as the winner of The Big Pitch 2025. This win is an extraordinary validation of the work our team has poured their hearts into.”
A qualified occupational therapist (BScOT, OTR) and best-selling author, Faure has spent over two decades pioneering tech-driven parenting solutions. Through Parent Sense, she has merged clinical expertise with artificial intelligence to provide evidence-based, empathetic support for new parents, a sector often overlooked by investors but ripe for scalable innovation.
A $1 Million Catalyst for Scale
For Parent Sense, the $1 million grant is not just capital. Faure says the funding will help her team expand globally and deepen impact across Africa, where early-childhood care solutions are increasingly critical.
“Many have asked what $1 million means to our business,” she reflected. “The honest answer? We’ll be reflecting deeply over the coming weeks. But what I do know is this: this is our middle story. The first chapter was a five-year grind sleepless nights, tears, bootstrapping, and unwavering belief. In the last 12 months, our wheel started to turn we found product–market fit, traction, and impact. And now… we get to take this solution to the world — at scale.”
The Big Pitch, now in its third year, attracts hundreds of startups across Africa and beyond. This year’s edition placed a strong emphasis on ventures that combine profitability with measurable social value a philosophy that resonated perfectly with Parent Sense’s model.
Africa’s startup ecosystem continues to defy global headwinds. According to Partech’s 2025 Africa Venture Capital Report, the continent’s healthtech and edtech sectors have shown resilient growth, with funding up nearly 20% year-on-year, even as global venture capital slowed.
Parent Sense’s success fits squarely into this narrative. By addressing the developmental and emotional needs of parents and children through an app-based platform, the startup captures a fast-growing demographic Africa’s expanding middle class and young, tech-savvy families.
The market opportunity is significant. The global parenting-tech market, estimated at over US $20 billion, is projected to grow sharply as mobile adoption deepens across developing economies. In South Africa alone, over 70% of households have at least one smartphone, positioning Parent Sense for mass adoption.
A Signal of Maturity in African Innovation
Faure’s victory highlights a shift in Africa’s entrepreneurial landscape from resource extraction to knowledge-driven industries where technology, empathy, and impact converge. Her journey mirrors that of a new generation of founders blending scientific insight with human-centered design.
“This win is ours. But it’s also yours,” she told her supporters on LinkedIn, dedicating the milestone to mentors, investors and early believers who backed her vision when it was “still just a dream.”
Parent Sense is now poised for international expansion. The company is already eyeing partnerships with healthcare systems and parenting networks in emerging markets, positioning itself as a global benchmark for digital early-childhood care.
The win could trigger more investor attention toward women-led tech ventures in Africa a segment that, despite its promise, still receives less than 5% of total venture funding on the continent.
For Meg Faure, however, the focus remains on purpose before profit. “To know that the Oppenheimer family and judges see what we see the power of early childhood, the potential of Parent Sense is everything,” she said.
As the confetti settles, her story stands as both a celebration and a challenge proof that African innovation is not only rising, but redefining the global narrative of what’s possible in business and technology.
