Jaleesa, the Lebanon-based tech startup that connects families with a trusted babysitter, has secured a $40,000 equity-free contribution from the World Bank.

The World Bank support comes as part of a $200,000 seed round currently being raised by Jaleesa. The seed round will contribute to further development of Jaleesa’s high quality child care, and expansion to other cities in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

Jaleesa has delivered over 1,200 hours of trusted child care. Their mission is to help women work, in three ways:

1. By offering flexible, trusted child care for a modern generation of mothers

2. By recruiting child carers from all backgrounds in Lebanon

3. By subsidizing child care for underprivileged families, so more women can enter the workforce.

All Jaleesa child carers go through a four-step security and training process, including full background checks, and training in first aid, CPR and child development.

The $40,000 contribution is sponsored by the World Bank as part of WeMENA, an initiative that supports women social entrepreneurs to build resilience in cities across MENA. Jaleesa was selected from among 2,000 women-led startups from across the region, and won second prize in the WeMENA final in Casablanca, Morocco, on April 29-30 2017.

Angela Solomon, CEO and cofounder of Jaleesa, said: “We’re very happy to be launching our seed round with this vote of confidence from the World Bank. The contribution is an endorsement of lots of hard work by a brilliant team. Thank you to all the Jaleesa families and babysitters who have helped us achieve this important milestone, and to AltCity Bootcamp for their support.”

WeMENA is a joint initiative of the World Bank, Younoodle and Voyaj. Jaleesa’s participation in the WeMENA finals was sponsored by Altcity’s Bootcamp, an intensive startup training program in Beirut, Lebanon, from which Jaleesa graduated in September 2016.

Feature image via Jaleesa.