London-based tiney, a childcare startup offering early years education to children across England, announced on Monday that it has raised £7.2M (approximately €8.3M) in a Series A funding round led by Mustard Seed Partners, with participation from PortfoLion, Sparkmind, and Rubio.
The latest funding round brings tiney’s total funding to date to £19M (approximately €22M).
With this new funding, the UK company wants to cement its position as the largest recruiter of childminders nationwide.
Also, Tiney aims to reverse the nationwide decline in childminding numbers and offer more parents across the country affordable, local care in a home-from-home environment.
Birth of tiney
Brett Wigdortz founded tiney after spending 15 years leading Teach First, a charity that has helped over a million children at primary and secondary school levels and has become the largest graduate recruiter in the UK.
As a father of three, he experienced how challenging it is to find excellent childcare that is also flexible and affordable.
With the help of experienced early childhood educators, nationally distinguished safeguarding leads, and digital tech experts, tiney was created.
Brett Wigdortz, CEO of tiney and founder of TeachFirst, says, “The first years of a child’s development are crucial for shaping their long-term educational trajectory. Early-year educators play an enormous role in this, but astronomical costs and provider shortages have robbed too many families of access to high-quality care.
tiney: Reinventing childcare
Founded in 2019 by Brett Wigdortz OBE, Graze co-founder Edd Read, and design entrepreneur John Newbold, tiney is an education company reinventing childcare by training and supporting early years educators to give children a great start in life.
The company trains and supports ‘micro-entrepreneurs’ to become childminders, providing affordable and high-quality early years education across England.
All successful tiney childminders are fully trained in the early year curriculum, paediatric first aid and safeguarding, and undergo enhanced DBS checks.
tiney is an Ofsted registered childminder agency providing 50+ hours of comprehensive online training to applicants.
The startup has over 1,000 registered childminders, and many more are undergoing training. More than 5,400 children use tiney’s services, making it the seventh-largest nursery chain in the country.
Since its launch, the platform has been instrumental in recruiting a diverse range of talent into the childcare sector.
In 2023, 42 per cent of its recruits came from non-education backgrounds such as law, dentistry, retail, design, and finance.
During the latter half of that same year, tiney recruited more than 40 percent of all new childminders in England.
“That’s why we’re working to reverse the decline in childminder numbers – the most affordable form of childcare – and champion those who want to pursue a hugely rewarding role. Our success is proof that there’s a huge appetite for careers in the early years when the right support is on offer. We’re finding the next generation of childminders and securing the futures of the next generation of children,” says Wigdortz.
The investor
Mustard Seed + Partners is a thematic investment firm backing entrepreneurs who build solutions to address the world’s largest environmental and social challenges.
Stanislas de Joussineau, Co-Managing Partner at Mustard Seed Partners, says, “Solving the childcare crisis will have huge benefits for the next generation, as well as the wider economy. We believe that tiney is already demonstrating the impact that cutting-edge technology combined with a passion for improving early years can have. They are single-handedly driving up childminder numbers across England and attracting a whole new cohort of talent into the early years space. We’re looking forward to partnering with them as they continue to scale.”
Read the orginal article: https://siliconcanals.com/news/startups/uks-tiney-gets-8-3m/
