Finding proper daycare for children is one of life's biggest challenges when starting a family. While searching daycare online has become the norm, it's still a very protracted process with hundreds of options. Also challenging is finding the perfect daycare center, only to become placed on long waiting lists.
A startup in Toronto, Canada has created an app called CubbySpot that aims to make daycare searching easier for every family.
Founded by Regnard Raquedan and his wife, Liza, the idea sprang from having children of their own when moving to Toronto. Their CubbySpot app was recently accepted into the Social Enterprise Accelerator program of the Community Innovation Lab. The latter is through the Ontario Social Impact Voucher Program (OSIV).
The Background of Founder Regnard Raquedan
With their initial home base in the Philippines, Raquedan and wife Liza moved to Toronto to find a new way of life. While there, they made a good life for themselves, including finding mentors to work with at the Toronto Founder Institute.
Once they had a baby, though, they realized finding daycare was a major challenge in the Toronto area. Every daycare center placed the Raquedans on long waiting lists going on for months.
Regnard and Liza already had backgrounds in user-experience design, as well as website and app building. They decided to create the CubbySpot app as an answer to daycare searching woes. Despite Regnard being over 35 at the time, he still found support for his entrepreneurial journey.
CubbySpot Makes Searching Easier
This is a simple app to download through the Apple app store or Google Play. You can start to use it immediately thanks to a simple search database based on where you live.
They provide an effective way to avoid being placed on the bottom of waiting lists, as well as working through one database. All contact with daycare centers occurs in an integrated place to avoid protracted paperwork and application statuses. Information and reviews are at your fingertips for complete vetting before visiting the daycare center in person.
Recently, they've added a similar service from the daycare side to better manage their clients. With 12,000 listings across Canada, it's already helping parents with kids cut months of time searching for the perfect daycare service.
Tapping into the Canadian Market
CubbySpot has a great advantage in Canada since not many similar services exist. It's not to say there aren't other online services they're competing with in the local market. Daycare search sites like DaycareIQ are available in Canada, despite not having the extensive listings or simpler UX like CubbySpot.
The future looks bright for the company, especially since it helps fill a need in Toronto where their broken childcare system is at a crisis point.
Recent Funding to Give CubbySpot a Boost
Back in December, CubbySpot received the SmartStart Seed Fund, which helps promising startups in the Ontario area receive necessary funding. It's here where the Raquedans received a major boost to take them to the next level and rise above their few competitors.
This also makes them customer-ready, meaning they can increase their number of users exponentially this year.
With continuing positive reviews of their app about user-friendliness and thoughtful design, they've already nurtured a good reputation. Adding features like notifications when daycare centers are available just adds to the app's usefulness and uniqueness. Updates continually occur as well, including recent daycare ratings and testimonial expansion.
