 "Effectiveness of nasal vaccine questioned")
If you are an expecting parent and live in a nuclear family, with no support system to fall back on, there is a start-up you can look up to for advice and support during pregnancy and raising your child. BabyChakra is a social discovery parenting platform for young parents for pregnancy and childcare.
Last month, it received an undisclosed amount of funding in the Series A round from Seattle-based RoundGlass. In 2015, the start-up had raised the seed round from Mumbai Angels, the Singapore Angel network, and Arihant Patni.
BabyChakra is an online community, which provides information on conception, pregnancy, birth, and early childhood for parents and parents-to-be. The platform also provides with reviews of maternity and childcare services and content focusing on healthcare, nutrition, early learning and support services (daycare, nanny agencies).
Launched in February 2015, the start-up plans to use the money raised for product development, strategic hires and to create localised content. The start-up makes money by providing a marketing platform to companies, including Johnson & Johnson, MamyPoko, Babyoye and Unilever. It is also in the process of launching a commission-based model where it will provide with the services in maternity and child care and charge a commission on the services booked.
“We have been cash-positive from the past couple of months as money has been coming in from the top brands,” says Naiyya Saggi, founder and chief executive officer.
The community comprises 500,000 mothers seeking advice and support and who share lessons learnt on their journey through pregnancy and parenthood. The start-up has a 40-member strong team and it aims to have two million monthly users by 2017. It is currently operational only in Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru and plans to expand to major metros. It competes with FirstCry, Tinystep and ZenParent in this segment.
