Many parents turn to their parents to provide childcare – not only to let generations build bonds and save on child care expense but also because grandparents are experienced, able to impart time-tested wisdom, and able to provide trusted care. Studies also show that exposure to older adults leads to improved social skills and improved literacy and numerical skills. But what do parents do when they don’t have the option to rely on their own parents? GrandNanny is a tech-enabled childcare platform that focuses on matching working parents with reliable, part-time childcare providers that are 50+. The platform vets all providers through enhanced background checks and each provider is required to have first aid and safeguarding training to ensure that parents can know that their child is in safe hands. GrandNanny handles payroll and administration including time-tracking, sick pay, pension compliance, and national insurance contributions. Older adults are able to earn additional income while connecting to their local community and future generations. The company takes a one-time placement free from the hiring parents of £285 to handle the hiring process from soup to nuts.
London TechWatch caught up with GrandNanny Founder and CEO Adele Aitchison to learn more about the business, the company’s strategic plans, recent round of funding, and much, much more…
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
GrandNanny has recently closed its pre-seed round at £400,000. The round secured investment from four investors, including 3 Sisters Ventures (3SV) Collective, a London-based angel network pioneering gender-smart investing in Venture Capital in Europe, Childcare entrepreneur Ben Black, founder of ground-breaking companies such as emergencychildcare.co.uk and NannyShare.co.uk, SFC Capital the UK’s most active early-stage investment firm and TwinklHive an investment company and business accelerator, that supports missional founders to scale and disrupt the technology sector.
Tell us about your product or service
GrandNanny is a social enterprise and tech-enabled childcare service established in 2020 to help families find part-time childcare and support over 50s into rewarding childcare jobs. We see the value that age diversity brings to children and their families. We wrap the proven scientific benefits of intergenerational programmes into a practical part-time childcare service. We are a social enterprise on a mission to connect communities across generations through rewarding childcare jobs. We know intergenerational connections are good for kids, families and GrandNannies. We match working parents who need childcare support with trusted midlife and neighbours who have childcare experience. We handle everything from Enhanced DBS checks, safeguarding and first aid training as well admin and payroll. Parents get a local, reliable, ‘seen-it-all-before’ Childcarer who wants to stick with their family for the long-term. In return, mid-life and older Childcarers find paid work that’s local, active and promotes social connection.
What inspired the start of GrandNanny?
Community connections are a huge part of what we do and why we started in the first place – finding rewarding jobs for mid-life and older adults whilst making childcare simpler for parents.
With the number of over 50s claiming Universal Credit doubling since the beginning of the pandemic, we created GrandNanny to help midlife+ people back into work and provide vital Childcare for working parents.
In addition to this, many childcare settings are being forced to close, after-school clubs running at reduced capacity, and working Mums taking the brunt of the burden, means the lack of childcare has now reached a crisis point
How is it different?
What makes us different is our older childcarers, who have a huge amount to offer families: reliability, stability and a deep understanding of the pressures of parenting combined with years of life experience which brings a very calming sense of perspective. We understand the value that age diversity brings to children and families, the childcarers we recruit and support are remarkably talented. Ex-Teachers, Embassy Workers, NHS staff, Parents, Grandparents, Childminders, Teaching assistants, Lunch-time Supervisors, Volunteers, Art Tutors…the list goes on. At GrandNanny, we wrap the scientific benefits of intergenerational programmes into a practical part-time childcare service that supports older Childcarers and local families. We are a social enterprise on a mission to connect communities across generations through rewarding childcare jobs. We know intergenerational connections are good for kids, families, and Grandnannies and the relationships between our users are really flourishing.
What market are you targeting and how big is it?
The childcare market. According to IBIS World the market size, measured by revenue, of the UK Child Day-Care Centres industry is £4.0bn in 2022. However, this is set to decline as more childcare settings are forced to close and after-school clubs run at reduced capacity. Right now, there is a greater need for flexible childcare than ever.
What’s your business model?
It’s simple, Grandnanny matches working parents who want to hire a part-time Childcarer with trusted mid-life and older neighbours who have childcare experience.
It’s simple, Grandnanny matches working parents who want to hire a part-time Childcarer with trusted mid-life and older neighbours who have childcare experience.
How are you preparing for a potential economic slowdown?
Making sure we are spending wisely. We’re lucky as we’ve just come out of a few months of testing and learning so now we’re consolidating.
What was the funding process like?
In a word – long. But we were atypical in that we only had a handful of meetings with select investors and of about eight meetings, five invested.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
Identifying the right people to speak to. I initially cast the net quite wide because the received wisdom is that it’s a numbers game and necessary to speak to a huge number of people before you get a yes. Howeve,r when I really thought about the most likely people to invest, I put together a list and approached them one by one, and that’s when the doors started to open.
Getting the term sheets is only half the battle though. Then it’s into the legal wrangling and trying to find alignment on the shareholders agreement. We were lucky to have Orrick as our partners.
What factors about your business led your investors to write the check?
We already had an MVP and were generating revenue. I’d invested masses of time and energy for over a year building the rudimentary business. We also had a small team funded through grants. So, there was already demand and we already knew what we wanted to do next. It definitely helps that GrandNanny is a concept people love – they like the idea of hiring a grandparent-figure to look after their kids, it makes sense and most people wonder why it doesn’t already exist. This meant the concept had already been picked up by some national newspapers.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We’ve just launched in Brighton so we’re continuing to focus efforts there and we’re improving the accessibility, clarity, and functionality of the web platform and overall service. We aim to make childcare hassle-free – we need to walk the walk.
What advice can you offer companies in London that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
My advice is to keep tight reins on the budget and financial forecasting to see if there are areas to cut overheads and, if you’re looking for investment, start close to home – who are the company’s mentors, what smaller grants might be available that align with the business’ mission?
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
Learning from where we’ve been and building something bigger and better for the future. That starts with increasing the functionality of our web platform. Long-term our mission is to build a more age-integrated society and to do that we want to see GrandNannies at every school gate. We’ll get there one childcare match at a time.
What is your favourite restaurant in London?
I’ve been going to Tranga in Newington Green for years – it’s a cosy place and the food is delicious.
