Originally based in London, the childcare service expanded into Hertfordshire, Surrey and Bristol earlier this year and plans to expand to the rest of the UK later in 2021.
Koru Kids is also launching a new scheme later this year, which will cover training and set up costs to help new childminders run nurseries in their own home, which it claims could see them earning £70,000 a year.
Founded in 2016 by Rachel Carrell, Koru Kids currently has 11,000 nannies registered on its website.
Later this month it will launch a service to support new childminders to set up a nursery style setting in their own home. This includes covering training and registration costs of £3,000, Ofsted registration, providing a £500 grant for set-up costs, on-hand support at every step and help to find nearby families.
Koru Kids is hoping that by expanding its services and supporting a new wave of nanny and childminding careers, that it can help those who have lost work during the pandemic.
Rachel Carrell, CEO and Founder of Koru Kids, said, ‘We’re seeing the “Motherhood Penalty” impact our sector in a number of ways - the first and most obvious is that without high quality, flexible, and affordable childcare mothers, and it is overwhelmingly mothers still, cannot return to their jobs as the UK reopens.
'The second impact we’re seeing is female talent being lost from a childcare sector that has been forgotten by this Government and left completely unsupported, most obviously when they have their own children and can’t afford to work.’
Koru Kids said its expansion into areas outside London has been driven by a rising demand for its childcare services in the last 12 months, and said plans to continue to grow throughout the UK this year.
Childminder agencies have been slow to take off. Brought in by the Conservative Government in 2013, there are just 10 agencies currently registered with Ofsted.
However, the past year has seen a resurgence in interest for small at-home nurseries, particularly among those new to the childcare sector.
The launch of Koru Kids into helping childminders and those new to childminding to set up their own small nurseries at home, echoes that of Tiney, which launched as a childminding agency in late 2019 by ex-CEO of Teach First Brett Wigdortz.
Its 'tech-first' approach has proved popular, with it offering online training and business support.
During the pandemic, it too saw a surge in applications from people wanting to run ‘home nurseries’, many new to childcare, who were reconsidering their careers as a result of lockdown and the impact of the pandemic.
Interviewed last year, Mr Wigdortz told Nursery World, 'It’s a different time in a different economic environment and people are looking for what to do in a post-Covid world.'