Affordable childcare for parents, high quality early education for children and careers for childminders, meet tiney

tiney was launched because my co-founders and I were frustrated by the lack of flexible, high-quality childcare available in the UK - as parents, we’d all experienced this problem first hand. When I met Brett Wigdortz (who founded Teach First) and John Newbold, we saw a clear opportunity to combine our expertise and improve early years education by modernising childminding.

Childminding is a brilliant industry but practitioner numbers had fallen steeply and not enough people were seeing it as a viable career option. The status quo was not working. But we believed that a tech-led approach could remove friction, boost childminder satisfaction, and attract more people into the profession. My experience as a co-founder at snack box company graze taught me how much I love bringing technology into so-called ‘traditional’ industries, so it was exciting to be doing it all over again about an issue I am so passionate about.

Tell us about the business – what it is, what it aims to achieve, who you work with, how you reach customers and so on?

tiney is a platform that helps people train as childminders and run their own ‘home nurseries’. Our mission is to fix the childcare crisis by making childminding a more respected, better-paid career, while giving families access to affordable, high-quality childcare, and giving under-5s the best start in life.

Our childminding community is made up of a really diverse mix of people, many from outside the education sector. We support them through training, Ofsted registration, business setup, and everyone on the subsequent journey as they grow their businesses. We also help parents find and book childcare easily through our app. The tiney platform takes care of all the admin, so childminders can focus on looking after children.

How has the business evolved since its launch?

We launched in 2019 and have since become the UK's largest childminder agency, with over 1,500 childminders operating or training across the nation. As the wider childcare sector has been shrinking, we have been growing. We have built a team of over 50 people and raised over £8M to support our mission.

By making childminding easier and more attractive, we are attracting a new cohort of brilliant early years educators and meaningfully shaping the shape of the UK childcare market. In 2023, 42 percent of our new childminders came from backgrounds like law, retail and finance. We have made it possible for them to retrain, build successful businesses and make a real difference to children’s lives.

Tell us about the working culture at tiney?

tiney is a mission-driven company. We believe every child deserves great early years education and that early childhood development is one of the most important areas for long-term social change. Every business decision has to come back to that.

Our team is collaborative and fast-moving, with a mix of tech, education and design expertise; and it’s this mix of folks from different backgrounds and experiences that gives us our superpowers. We work hard, but we are also focused on supporting each other and the community of childminders we serve. We are always listening and improving to make sure our platform genuinely helps both childminders and parents.

How are you funded?

We raised a £7.2M Series A last year from backers including Mustard Seed Partners, PortfoLion, Sparkmind and Rubio. They backed us because they saw how big the childcare problem is and how scalable our solution can be.

Childcare is not just a problem for parents, it is an economic issue for the nation. tiney can make a real impact by offering flexible, affordable childcare - enabling parents (particularly mothers) to return to work as well as making it easier for people to start their own businesses, in their own homes. Our investors understand this vision and the huge impact our solution stands to make.

What has been your biggest challenge so far and how have you overcome this?

One of the biggest challenges has actually been changing the way the wider world perceives childminding. Before I worked in this world, I didn’t know much about childminders and a lot of people still see them as ‘babysitters’ rather than professional early years educators. We have worked hard to shift that perception. Our childminders are highly trained, Ofsted-registered professionals who follow a world-class curriculum.

How does tiney answer an unmet need?

The childcare system in the UK is broken. Parents struggle to find affordable, high-quality care, and nurseries are facing staff shortages and rising costs. At the same time, the number of childminders has been falling for decades because there has been no real support to help them get started.

tiney is changing that by making it easier for people to become childminders, providing training, handling admin and giving them a community to be part of. For parents, we offer a more flexible and affordable childcare option that fits better with modern family life.

What’s in store for the future?

We’re only just getting started. We are growing our network of childminders and helping more families access great early years education. We will keep improving our technology to make running a childminding business even easier. We are also working with policymakers to make sure childminders get the recognition and support they deserve.

Our long-term goal is to be the first choice for anyone who wants to work in early years education and for parents looking for trusted, flexible childcare. There is still a lot to do, but we are excited about the future and committed to making a real difference.

What one piece of advice would you give other founders or future founders?

You’ll find plenty of roadblocks, and people who’ll tell you why it won’t work along the way. There will be moments when no amount of data or analysis can give you the right answer. In the end, it often comes down to passion and sheer persistence - sticking with it longer than anyone else, finding a way through, and trusting yourself along the way.

And finally, a more personal question! What’s your daily routine and the rules you’re living by at the moment?

I always carry a paper notebook with me to jot down thoughts throughout the day. Writing them down helps me process and think them through, and it's also a way for me to focus on listening to my gut instincts more. I find journaling really supports that.

I keep daily task lists in there too. Every morning, I take time to consolidate notes from previous pages into a fresh to-do list. It's deeply satisfying to check off items as I go through the day.

Edd Read is the co-founder of tiney.