Happity, the UK’s only platform that’s dedicated exclusively to booking parent and child classes, is used by over 1.2 million new parents every year. The popular parenting directory has joined the TwinklHive portfolio, having successfully closed £800k in seed funding. Other backers include Arfah Farooq, via the Ada Ventures Angel Programme, as well as the founders of some of the UK’s best known children’s activity brands who joined the round via a Crowdcube campaign.
Created by two mothers who had experienced loneliness and postnatal depression in the early days of parenthood, the business has had an extraordinary journey, growing from the kitchen table to become the UK’s leading platform for the under-5s activity sector. It now lists over 22,000 weekly activities and has generated millions of pounds of additional bookings for the sector. Their work has been recognised in this year’s SmallBiz100 list.
Founders Sara Tateno and Emily Tredget said: “We’re incredibly excited to be joining TwinklHive and to have also secured the backing of Ada Ventures via their angel programme, which is increasing diversity within the UK’s startup eco-system. As an all-female founding team, we’ve been underestimated in the past, despite our extensive achievements and professional credentials. But that has only spurred us on to reach greater heights.
In creating Happity, we’ve drawn on our lived experiences of becoming mothers and wanting to make the leap to entrepreneurship to forge our own way. Our journey has evolved alongside thousands of small business owners in the children’s activity sector who have made similar leaps, and we’re proud to be bringing them on board as co-owners.
This funding will help us grow our reach across the rest of the UK. We hope our story will also inspire more mothers, many of whom are at risk of leaving the workforce, to become leaders and create the change they want to see in the world.”
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TwinklHive, the investment arm of digital educational publisher Twinkl, supports mission-driven start-ups to scale. Their investment recognises the growth potential of the company, as well as the significant positive impact Happity has on new parents, including its efforts to support maternal mental health.
David Angrave, Chief Operating Officer at Twinkl and Investment Director of TwinklHive, said “We are thrilled to support Happity as they continue to grow in the UK market. Happity are leading the way with their platform, supporting activity providers, parents and their children, especially through the early stages of parenthood.”
Happity is a booking platform for parents and child classes that is used by over 1.2 million parents a year and is currently available in 20 cities. Happity was named in this year’s SmallBiz100 list and now joins the TwinklHive portfolio.
Emily’s campaigning on behalf of parents was nominated for the UK Parliament’s Petition of the Year Award, and Sara was named in the Women in Software Power List 2021 having retrained as a software developer via a coding bootcamp when her son was 5 months old.
Founders Emily and Sara are on hand to talk about a range of related subjects such as raising funding as a wholly female founding team, shared parental leave, flexible working, tech startup life and juggling business with motherhood.
