Startup Story
Marie Behrens is the founder and CEO of Kipepeo in Mauritius. She is a serial entrepreneur with over 13 years experience developing beauty salons and spas internationally, and with that skillset and passion for the industry she is now building a pan African marketplace that provides beauty and wellness professionals with a management and booking solution to optimize their business. It is the first start up of its kind in Mauritius and has been operational for more than a year, creating a community and business support to over 100 professionals. Her vision is to create equal growth opportunities for these professionals across Africa by using an end-to-end digital solution.
LoA chatted to founder Marie Behrens about her entrepreneurial journey to date and her aspirations for the future.
What does your company do?
It a Saas enabled marketplace that offers booking and management solutions to Wellness and Beauty professionals whilst connecting them to clients.
“Kipepeo’s goal is to be the first African wellness and beauty booking app across Africa.”
“My drive was the frustration of talented skill-based entrepreneurs that could not find affordable solutions to help them solve their admin and management problems.”
What inspired you to start your company?
My drive was the frustration of talented skill-based entrepreneurs that could not find affordable solutions to help them solve their admin and management problems, which eventually pushed them to give up on their dream and look for employment to sustain their livelihood.
What makes your business, service or product special?
Kipepeo is a mobile driven application made to answer the African challenges faced by the wellness and beauty entrepreneurs, be it the payment methods or the communication channels, the App is an affordable tool which provides real-time solutions.
Tell us a little about your team
The team currently consists of myself and a group of advisors in tech, business development, marketing and compliance sectors.
Share a little about your entrepreneurial journey. And, do you come from an entrepreneurial background?
I have been an entrepreneur since 2010 where I built my first beauty salon with an African twist in Dubai. Being the first of its kind in Dubai it was an instant success and motivated me to build more around the country. A few years later I was called to help entrepreneurs build their own successful brands. From then on I knew that this shall be my mission, to help entrepreneurs build their dream.
“I get satisfaction when I know I have had a positive impact on a community, when my skillset and experience has helped another woman remove their glass ceiling.”
What are your future plans and aspirations for your company?
Kipepeo’s goal is to be the first African wellness and beauty booking app across Africa, expanding to South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Nigeria and Ivory Coast, helping millions of entrepreneurs build sustainable business communities and providing for their family.
What gives you the most satisfaction being an entrepreneur?
I get satisfaction when I know I have had a positive impact on a community, when my skill-set and experience has helped another woman remove their glass ceiling.
What's the biggest piece of advice you can give to other women looking to start-up?
Dream big and take action, the only real obstacle to your future is yourself so use your fear as fuel.
Contact or follow Kipepeo
WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | EMAIL marie.behrens@kipepeo.co
Why LoA loves it…
They say that if you want to build a successful business, then find a pain-point to solve in people’s lives, and that is certainly what Marie Behrens is doing with Kipepeo. She saw a real gap in the wellness and beauty sector to support entrepreneurs with their booking and management systems, so built an app to provide the solution. Marie and other women entrepreneurs like her know that if you want to find your niche in the marketplace, look for the need and then become the problem solver. — Melanie Hawken, founder & ceo, Lionesses of Africa