Two scale-ups that help busy families thrive
Having a baby may be the right time for some mums, dads and parents to have a break to focus on their growing family. For others, being a working parent creates endless challenges that seem almost impossible to solve.
Whatever the shape and size of your family, there’s lots of decisions to make. Who’s going to look after your baby while you’re at work? If you can find suitable childcare, can you afford it? And how do you keep kids at home busy with fun and creative activities?
This week, the 100 Stories of Growth campaign shines a light on two tech-enabled scale-ups that have spotted gaps in the market. Parenthood inspired these company founders to find popular solutions that help other growing families. And investing in tech has let them scale their ideas.
ToucanBox delivers kids’ fun activity kits
Former Yahoo executive and mother-of-three Virginie Charlès-Dear set up the kids’ activity and crafts kits business when she was on maternity leave five years ago.
When you choose a craft kit for a child, ToucanBox’s smart tech platform selects a £6 age-specific pack. Then hey presto, the box of fun is delivered through your letterbox
I wanted to entertain my three-year-old in a productive way, but the available products were not sparking any sort of creativity.
Charlès-Dear and her co-founder Sara Barokas, who’s a Montessori-method teacher, started selling online. At first they funded the company through their savings.
Then they started to raise capital from business angels including the founders of Graze and Innocent Drinks. The capital was put into developing the product. “But it wasn’t just about the money, it was about the network,” Charlès-Dear says.
BGF invested £2.6m in May 2016. The company then expanded from 10 to 35 people in a matter of months. In total, the company has raised more than £6m in funding.
ToucanBox is one of the UK’s fastest-growing education technology businesses today. [Read the ToucanBox story]
Koru Kids creates childcare solutions
Frustrated by the lack of affordable, quality childcare in her area, Rachel Carrell decided to make a difference for working families.
The whole structure of childcare today doesn’t work for many families. For example, children at school get 16 weeks of holiday each year while their parents might get only five weeks each.
Carrell says that she found the cheapest childcare in her area was £20,000 a year. But when her child minder moved, she was left with no local options.
As a former consultant at McKinsey and a CEO at healthcare company Dr Thom, Carrrell was used to taking on a big challenge. So Koru Kids was born.
She created a model with a simple pricing scheme of £12 per hour for a nanny. This fee includes everything from nanny selection, training and tax issues.
Koru Kids raised £600,000 in 2017 – much of this invested by Gumtree co-founder Michael Pennington. Earlier this year, the company closed a £3.5m seed round led by Forward Partners and Albion Capital.
With a team of 14 in place, Carrell is looking to use this fresh capital to double the headcount. [Read the Koru Kids story]
What these two companies show is that busy families need and will pay for affordable services to help their kids thrive.
