London start-up Pebble brings flexible childcare and children’s activities to over 30,000 parents
Finding last-minute childcare can be a painful challenge for parents, with a more flexible workforce than ever before, the need for greater flexibility is increasing. The technology underpinning such a crucial infrastructure – the childcare sector – is incredibly outdated and complicated, creating unnecessary barriers to access for parents and providers. This is something that the flexible childcare platform Pebble is on a mission to solve.
Founded in 2020, London-based start-up Pebble has created the first UK tech solution to empower both care and activity providers to connect with anyone at any time – with a platform that enables parents to book and manage their childcare flexibly and around life (and kids!) Through Pebble, you can now book and manage childcare in one place – including extra-curricular activities as well as ad hoc or wrap-around childcare.
After raising an additional £5 million earlier this year, Pebble is on a mission to expand and to roll out nationally, boosting availability and access to flexible childcare and activities for parents across the UK.
Endless searching and scrolling for activities that are local and are right for the age of your child can send parents into hours of fruitless searching online, across social media and local groups on social media. Thanks to Pebble all activities that are happening locally from baby classes, evening clubs, holiday clubs and weekend activities are all covered in one place – just a couple of clicks and activities for the family are booked and paid for.
Since its launch, Pebble has grown in momentum; launched in London last September, the company has seen huge growth and is now looking to expand to other major cities in the UK. Pebble now lists over 100,000 available sessions across and enables last-minute booking in over 500 nurseries, including the UK’s largest nursery network, Busy Bees, and several of the biggest activity franchise providers. Parents have the ability to select the flexible childcare that is right for them; in home, childminder or a nursery through the platform.
Lance Beare, CEO of Pebble comments, “The technology that underpins such a crucial infrastructure – the childcare sector – is incredibly clunky and complicated, creating unnecessary barriers for access to both parents and providers. We’re breaking this down and bringing childcare solutions into the 21st century in a way that will enable parents to manage life around work whilst also enabling activity and childcare providers to increase their revenue streams at a time when increased revenue is crucial to riding out the recession, and giving parents greater choice and access to early years care support when it is most needed.”
He continues, “Finding new local activities for the kids can be every parent’s headache. We want to take away the endless scrolling and searching for things to do as a family and to help to inspire activities for children and families to fill their weekends with fun together.”
Fast forward to today, and Pebble is now used by over 30,000 parents across the UK, and is proving popular with parents, with 20% more parents booking activities and childcare through the platform every month.
You can have a look around Pebble here.
Featured Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash
