• Local insurer Momentum has teamed up with navigation app Waze to highlight women-owned businesses.
• Nominated female entrepreneurs will have their businesses pop up along routes on the Waze app.
• With women-owned ventures making up only one-fifth of local businesses, Momentum hopes this integration with Waze will provide some support for these entrepreneurs.

South African insurance and financial services provider Momentum Group announced today a new interactive collaboration with Google-owned global navigation software firm Waze that will see local women-owned businesses put front and centre.

According to a press release sent to Hypertext, this initiative between the two companies will encourage everyday people to nominate a women-owned business of their choice to be highlighted on the Waze app for travelling users.

Nominations can be made using a registration link where these businesses will be uploaded and identified on Waze. Then users of the app will see the women-owned businesses clearly indicated as they roll along frequently used travel routes. The two companies hope this initiative will bring renewed support to these female entrepreneurs.

“We see these women as the backbone of the SA economy, actively contributing to society, but we’re not sure where to find them,” says Charlotte Nsubuga-Mukasa, head of Brand Marketing at Momentum.

“And if we don’t know, neither does the consumer who would like to support them.”

Nsubuga-Mukasa said that the solution Momentum decided on was to publish on Waze, which manages more than 800 000 local users. She adds that Momentum wishes for the registration of these businesses with Waze to facilitate the support and recognition of these women entrepreneurs.

According to Mastercard’s Index of Women Entrepreneurs report, women-owned ventures make up one-fifth of South Africa’s total businesses. However, even amid challenging economic conditions, Momentum sees the number of female entrepreneurs increasing.

“We want to actively help bring new customers through their doors and challenge consumers to also play their part by telling us about other women-owned businesses that we should know of and support,” adds Nsubuga-Mukasa.

Waze will allow Momentum to drop pins, or markers, that indicate to travelling users that they are close to nominated women-owned businesses, signal the precise location of the establishment and display current opening hours and special offers.

These businesses will be marked with small digital advertising signs in the form of red flags with a ‘W’ for ‘Womentum’, the company says.

This recent Waze integration forms part of Momentum’s annual She Owns Her Success Campaign, currently in its fourth year. She Owns Her Success is aimed at reaching out with consistent provisions, tools and advice for women entrepreneurs.

While this campaign may be unique to South Africa, it isn’t unique to Waze, which launched a similar integration with Nissan’s luxury car division Infiniti in the US in March of this year.

If you have a women-owned business you’d like to nominate to be highlighted on the Waze app, you can do so here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AiOTww4T1A

[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]