Nov 02 2026.
views 33The Sabaragamuwa undergraduate behind Meribel on how a 2023 idea called BabyChart became an AI-powered child health app, now live on Google Play.
By Hafsa Rizvi
She is still an undergraduate. She is also a CEO, a hackathon winner and the co-founder of a company that has just put a product into the hands of Sri Lankan parents. Nipuni Marasinghe, who studies at Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, is betting that one of the country’s most familiar objects, the paper child health record, is ready to move onto a phone.
In September 2026, her startup Meribel Pvt Ltd launched Baby & Me, a mobile app that digitises that record and wraps it in baby-care tools and artificial intelligence. The launch began not in a boardroom but with a simple question: why does something so important still live on paper?
Nipuni Marasinghe: The Student Who Questioned the Book
Marasinghe’s interests sit where software engineering, UI/UX design and product development meet. What drives her is the belief that technology should solve real-world problems, and she chose child healthcare as the place to start. She co-founded Meribel with a team of like-minded people who shared that conviction.
The problem was easy to find. Paper records can be misplaced or damaged. Parents can struggle to keep track of vaccinations, growth measurements, developmental milestones and clinic dates. Healthcare workers spend valuable time searching through multiple documents. And when children are vaccinated by different providers, the information may never connect to earlier records, which can lead to fragmented histories, missed vaccinations and vaccine wastage.
From BabyChart to Baby & Me
The idea began in 2023 under the name BabyChart. As it matured into a company product, it became Baby & Me under Meribel.
The first step was listening. The team spoke with parents and midwives about manual record keeping and the difficulty of retrieving vaccination histories. Anoli Nathashia, a mother, described losing her paper vaccination record and then struggling to prove her vaccination history while travelling abroad. Chamari Kaushalya, a midwife, pointed to the time and effort it takes to search through multiple documents for information about mothers and children.
Both stories shaped what the team built. One showed what a lost book can cost a family, and the other showed what a stack of books can cost a clinic.
Inside Baby & Me: Nine Tools, One Profile
The journey is designed to be simple, even for parents with limited technical experience. They download the app, create an account, choose their preferred language and build a digital profile for their child. From there, Baby & Me brings together:
A QR code lets authorised healthcare professionals view relevant information in the child’s profile, connecting parents and clinics without a pile of paperwork in between.
Two features set the app apart. AI Growth Insights analyses recorded growth information and helps parents understand patterns over time, turning raw measurements into something meaningful. The AI Assistant Chatbot offers an interactive way to ask baby-care questions and receive guidance. Combined with a multilingual experience and records built around the local system, they make Baby & Me a comprehensive child healthcare platform rather than simply a baby tracker.
The Gampaha and Kadawatha Test
Before launch, the team refined the app through research, feedback and pilot testing with mothers and midwives in Gampaha and Kadawatha. Mothers appreciated having convenient access to their children’s health information, along with reminders for upcoming vaccinations. Midwives found the app useful for reducing the effort of manual record keeping.
Small, practical wins like these are what turn a prototype into a product people trust, and they are the kind of evidence that matters most when a startup asks parents to rely on it.
The Trophy Shelf Behind the Launch
The Meribel team has collected a notable run of recognition:
Taken together, the list traces a steady climb from early hackathon placings to national startup honours. For a team led by a student, each award has also worked as encouragement to keep building.
Nipuni’s Next Chapter
For Marasinghe, Baby & Me is more than an app. It is a chance to use technology to address a real problem experienced every day by parents and healthcare professionals alike.
The roadmap is deliberately practical: improve the user experience, increase adoption, strengthen healthcare partnerships and keep refining the AI Growth Insights and AI Assistant Chatbot. The longer ambition is a trusted digital child healthcare platform that grows alongside families, supports more informed parenting and could eventually be adapted for other countries facing similar challenges.
For now, the milestone is simpler. A student’s 2023 idea is on the Play Store, and a mother can open her phone instead of searching her drawer for the book.
Baby & Me is available on Android via Google Play. More at www.meribel.lk.
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