Bedford entrepreneur named national finalist for Black founders' prize

Navigating mental health services at university inspired Mukisa Kakembo to create Fem Entity, a women’s health app that helps users connect with practitioners.

During her first year of law school at Dalhousie, Kakembo experienced gaps in the health system.

She had lined up an internship at the Women’s Legal Education and Action Fund in Toronto and then COVID hit. Instead of heading to Toronto, Kakembo spent the quarantine in her Halifax apartment. That’s when she noticed a change in her mental health.

“I ended up working like three jobs somehow, and then the Black Lives Matter movement came forth,” she recalled. “So, I was seeing a lot of people who looked like me on TV really struggling and suffering, and so that took a toll on my personal mental health too.

“I did what I thought was the right thing to do: I called the wellness centre at my school every single day for a week, and every single day they told me, ‘Please try again tomorrow.’”

The Bedford native said it took another breakdown for her to write to the director of health at the university.

“He booked me an appointment personally. I just thought it should not be this hard to get mental health support.”

From that experience came the idea for Fem Entity.

Fem Entity is a Canadian wellness platform designed to provide personalized, connected care for women, integrating technology, community and trusted practitioners.

Kakembo says the digital platform will help address the gaps in traditional healthcare by providing continuity, trust and guidance for women.

“This is kind of the digital era, so we’ll continue having in-person activations, but we are launching the app, which is going to be a national women’s health network,” she said.

“You can go through the app to put in your symptoms, tell us what you’re struggling with, and then we will recommend the top three practitioners who are within your jurisdiction, who are available and ready to take new appointments and connect you with them. You can book through the app and hold your appointment all in one place.”

The 30-year-old’s belief in her business motivated her to enter Fem Entity in the Federation of African Canadian Economics (FACE) and Melamoon national pitch competition for Black Canadian founders.

Kakembo’s pitch has passed the first two stages of the competition and landed Fem Entity in the top five for FACE and Melamoon’s grand finale in Toronto on Oct. 16-17.

The top five entrepreneurs will share $200,000 prize money, with the winner taking home $100,000.

The prize money and notoriety from the contest would provide a significant opportunity to change the trajectory of the fledgling company.

“I think especially when you’re a company that’s bootstrapping. I’ve put a lot of my personal funds into this,” said Kakembo. “It’s not just me. I have two developers and three designers who are helping with this project, and they’re always asking for software updates and things.

“I’m limited in my cash because we’re pre-revenue and pre-launch. We have started collecting practitioners, but we’re in a month where we’re giving them a free trial period because we’re still in testing.”

Kakembo said Fem Entity has launched and is testing on Apple. The company has onboarded over 20 practitioners.

“You can go in and sign up as either a client or a practitioner to get connected with more care. We have practitioners who have onboarded so far, who are starting to create profiles, and we are looking to start matching within the month.”

Kakembo said she will expand on the pitch that earned a trip to the grand finale.

“The pitch that got me into this spot must have been good, so I want to keep the bones of my last pitch but also update it with what we’ve accomplished and what we’ve been doing,” she said.

“I have connected with Volta, a startup incubator in Halifax. We’re going to enter the residency program. We have started onboarding practitioners. We have both demand on the practitioner side and the client side.”

Advancing to the grand final has helped quell the doubts that Kakembo had during the difficult days of getting Fem Entity off the ground.

“I think it is a huge validation,” she said. “As an entrepreneur, there are so many days, especially when you just have to pivot because, technically, it’s not possible, or it’s going to be more expensive than you anticipated. There are so many times you question whether you should keep going.”

Kakembo’s parents and an aunt and uncle will be in the crowd when she makes her final pitch to FACE and Melamoon.

“Just even winning the top 10 (in Halifax) was huge validation for me that this business could be successful,” she said. “I think winning Melamoon would be the absolute unequivocal yes from the universe to keep going, keep building, and create this national network.”