childcare
(7)
Cariloop
Cariloop is a Dallas-area health and wellness company that helps working caregivers manage the demands of caring for children, aging parents, and other loved ones. Sold to employers as a benefit, its Caregiver Support Platform pairs each family with a dedicated, licensed Care Coach and a secure portal for storing documents, finding and booking care providers, and navigating medical, financial, and legal questions. Founded in 2012 by Michael Walsh and Steven Theesfeld, the company has supported more than 300,000 families and raised roughly $43 million across seed through Series C rounds.
ActivityHero
ActivityHero is a Palo Alto-based online marketplace and software platform that helps parents find, compare, and book summer camps, after-school classes, and enrichment activities for their kids - in-person, online, or on-demand. Founded in 2012 by engineers-turned-mothers Peggy Chang and Shilpa Dalmia, it also provides registration, marketing, and management software to the camps, studios, and school districts that run those programs, connecting millions of families with tens of thousands of activity providers.
The June Care Company
The June Care Company is a mom-led childcare marketplace that connects parents needing care with vetted, background-checked stay-at-home parents in their own neighborhoods. Founded in 2021 by former Intuit general manager Gretchen Salyer, it began as pandemic-era childcare swaps among friends and grew into an app-based platform matching families with trusted local caregivers - closing the gap between families who lack affordable, flexible childcare and stay-at-home parents who want income without leaving home. Backed by $3.6M in seed funding from Craft Ventures, Greycroft, and Yes VC.
Gretchen Salyer
Gretchen Salyer is the founder and CEO of The June Care Company, a community-based childcare platform she launched in June 2021 after 15 years in technology, ending as a general manager at Intuit. Born out of pandemic childcare swaps she organized among neighbors, June Care connects parents who need care with vetted, background-checked stay-at-home parents who can earn income watching other children nearby. The company - whose name stands for Joining Up Neighbors Everywhere - has raised about $3.6M in seed funding led by Craft Ventures, and operates on Salyer's belief that the childcare crisis is solved by helping every family build its village.
Winnie
Winnie is a San Francisco-based childcare marketplace that connects millions of parents with licensed daycare centers, preschools, and early education providers across the United States. Founded in 2016 by Sara Mauskopf and Anne Halsall - two former Google and Postmates engineers who were also parents - Winnie has grown from a local San Francisco app into a national platform covering 200,000+ licensed providers in over 7,000 cities. The platform combines comprehensive data (tuition costs, licensing status, inspection reports, availability) with community reviews and a SaaS layer for providers called Winnie Pro. Ranked #177 on the 2023 Inc. 5000 list and #1 in Consumer Services, Winnie sits at the intersection of a 500-billion-dollar childcare crisis and a generation of parents who expect the same search experience for daycares that they get for restaurants.
Dave Vasen
Dave Vasen is the founder and CEO of brightwheel, the leading all-in-one software platform for early education that serves thousands of childcare centers and preschools across the US. A Stanford and Wharton graduate, Vasen left AltSchool in 2014 to build brightwheel after seeing firsthand how preschool operators struggle to run both a classroom and a business simultaneously. He famously appeared on Shark Tank in 2016 where Mark Cuban and Chris Sacca fought over the deal, landing a $600K investment. Brightwheel has since raised $88.8M in total funding and reached a $700M+ valuation by 2024, with $75M in annual revenue - making it one of the most impactful companies in the early childhood education space.
Sara Mauskopf
Sara Mauskopf is the CEO and co-founder of Winnie, a marketplace helping millions of parents find daycare, preschool, and childcare across the United States. A MIT computer science graduate and former product leader at YouTube, Twitter, and Postmates, she co-founded Winnie in 2016 after struggling to find childcare for her first child. Under her leadership, Winnie has raised $15.5M in funding, serves over 4 million parents, covers 250K+ licensed providers across 7,000+ U.S. cities, and ranked #177 on the 2023 Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies - earning the #1 Consumer Services Company spot.