Dr Abiodun Adereni is building a new model for healthcare innovation in Africa, one where technology is not developed simply for convenience but designed to solve some of the continent’s most urgent health challenges. A physician, social entrepreneur and healthcare innovator, Adereni is the Founder and CEO of HelpMum, Dorbic Health and Smart MRS, organisations focused on improving maternal and child health through technology, data and community centred solutions. His work has positioned him at the intersection of healthcare, artificial intelligence and social impact, with HelpMum emerging as one of Nigeria’s notable digital health innovators.
Adereni founded HelpMum with a focus on reducing preventable maternal and newborn deaths, initially deploying clean birth kits and community based interventions to women in underserved communities. Over time, the organisation evolved into a technology driven health platform working across immunisation, maternal health and child survival. As a 2017 Tony Elumelu Foundation entrepreneur, Adereni has continued to develop solutions designed for African realities, including digital vaccination tools that have contributed to Nigeria’s national immunisation efforts. HelpMum’s expanding technology portfolio now includes VaxAI, MamaBot AI and ADVISER, an AI driven vaccination intervention system designed to improve immunisation strategies and reach underserved populations.
His work gained international recognition during the COVID 19 pandemic when Adereni received the 2021 Waislitz Global Citizen COVID 19 Response Award, which came with a $50,000 prize. He has also been named an Ashoka Fellow and has served as a youth adviser to the World Bank, while his broader record of innovation has earned recognition through global technology and social impact platforms. These achievements reflect a career built around using entrepreneurship as a mechanism for solving public health challenges rather than simply creating commercial ventures.
In 2026, HelpMum reached another defining moment when it won the Grand Prize for AI for Social Impact at Prix Ars Electronica, one of the world’s most prestigious platforms for digital art, technology and innovation. The recognition placed HelpMum’s work among global projects demonstrating how technology can create meaningful social change. The organisation has also received a $250,000 grant from the Patrick J. McGovern Foundation and a Meta AI Innovation Grant, providing further support for its efforts to apply artificial intelligence to healthcare.
Adereni’s latest work is pushing that vision even further. HelpMum has launched MamaBench, an initiative designed to advance safer and more responsible applications of artificial intelligence in healthcare, particularly in contexts affecting mothers and children. At the same time, HelpMum has been selected as one of 18 locally led organisations in the ICONIQ Impact Child Survival Portfolio, a $100 million philanthropic initiative supporting organisations working across nutrition, immunisation and frontline healthcare in Sub Saharan Africa and South Asia. Through the portfolio, HelpMum plans to deepen the reach of its AI solutions while developing additional tools for immunisation and nutrition and opening selected innovations for wider use.
What makes Dr Abiodun Adereni’s journey particularly significant is the evolution from grassroots intervention to globally recognised health technology. His work demonstrates that African innovation does not have to begin with abundant resources to produce solutions capable of attracting international attention and investment. Through HelpMum and his wider ventures, Adereni is building technology around one of Africa’s most fundamental priorities: ensuring that mothers and children have a better chance to survive and thrive. With AI increasingly becoming part of the next generation of healthcare delivery, his work places Nigeria firmly within a global conversation about how technology can be designed for impact, inclusion and human life.
