Childcare business secures £3.5m with Albion and Forward Partners

Koru Kids, the London based startup aiming to fix the ‘broken’ after-school childcare landscape, has successfully raised £3.5m in what was an oversubscribed seed round.

The business, which is growing at a rate of 30 per cent monthly, is taking on the UK’s £11bn childcare market by further growing its innovative tech and training-led approach, which provides parents with after-school nannies.

The innovation in Koru Kids’ approach lies in the fact that it takes seriously the neglected area of after school childcare, by tying together a traditionally disjointed and difficult process.

The business was founded in 2016 by Rachel Carrell, a former McKinsey & Company consultant who, on having her first child, quickly realised that arranging childcare can present many difficulties and worry.

Rachel found it impossible to locate a solution that she felt comfortable with and decided to build the technology needed to fix the problem for parents in the same position.

She said: “We are incredibly pleased and proud to announce this successful raise of seed capital from some of London’s foremost VCs and angel investors.

“Childcare is a crippling expense and also a major headache for many families. One mum I recently spoke to described her childcare arrangements as a ‘hamster wheel of hell’.

“With so many problems to solve, we’re incredibly excited to be able to use this investment to build the world’s best childcare service. Working parents are the busiest people on the planet.

“They don’t have time to patch everything together. I wanted to build a childcare service which takes care of all the little details.”

The technology streamlines the process of identifying the right after school nanny for a family, and takes care of the ongoing paperwork.

Meanwhile, Koru Kids also works with the nannies themselves, handpicking university students with a natural passion and flair for childcare and ensuring each graduates from an in-house training course.

The team also provides ongoing support to nannies and families, via a curated nanny community where members can share recipes and tips and also offer emotional support and advice.

Matthew Bradley at Forward Partners, added: “The lack of affordable childcare in the UK is a massive problem for young families.

“It’s a huge market but extremely inefficient and parents and children routinely suffer poor services and products. That’s just not good enough.

“Koru Kids is already a superb business making massive inroads and helping to alleviate the problem. We’ve known Rachel for a few years now and we’re incredibly excited to be a part of the team.”