TeachKloud, a Cork-based edtech startup that provides a SaaS platform for early childcare providers, has raised €750,000 in a funding round to expand into new markets.
The round was led by Dublin-based Frontline Ventures, and backed by the AIB Discovery Fund. Others like Enterprise Ireland, publishing company Folens, and edtech entrepreneur and investor Sean Tai also participated in the funding round.
Founded in 2016 by Wendy Oke, TeachKloud provides a platform for use by creches and preschools. It provides a cloud-based SaaS solution that enables educators to streamline all aspects related to managing their work, complying with regulations and communicating with parents. TeachKloud enables educators to help children succeed and spend less time on paperwork with its cloud-based childcare and pre-school online management system.
Created by early-years professionals, TeachKloud’s feature-rich set of intelligent tools allows managers to work smart, reduce time spent on administration and improve the quality of teaching delivered by all staff. The platform can be used to cover everything from waiting lists and attendance tracking, to policies, procedures, safety audits, teaching plans, staff scheduling, developmental observations, broadcast messages and parents’ library.
Explaining its vision, Wendy Oke, Founder and CEO of TeachKloud, said,
“Our vision is to provide quality early childhood education to every child. No matter who they are, or where they come from – by empowering their teachers and parents to provide individualized learning and provide safer educational environments.”
TeachKloud offers its solution at €1 per child per month, with creches and preschools able to claim up to €2,000 back through the National Childcare Scheme to integrate it internally. The startup claims to have more than 130 customers with some 4,000 children having been profiled.
Commenting on the funding, Finn Murphy, Principal at Frontline Ventures, said,
“As primary caregivers continue to move more into the workplace, there is an increasing need for better support around childcare and education centers. We believe this will be an area of explosive growth as parents expect to get more updates related to the development of their children via mobile applications – this is a technology-enabled market that TeachKloud is uniquely positioned to lead.”
According to Wendy Oke, childhood educators in Ireland currently spend more than two hours on average each day on administrative efforts. This, she said, is time that could be better utilized in providing more high-quality care for children.
Meanwhile, TeachKloud plans to use the latest funds to hire additional staff in product development and marketing, and to fuel growth into UK and US markets. The company is keen to scale quickly and intends to embark on another fundraising round later this year with the aim of securing up to €4 million from backers.
