A new Athens, Greece-based business is helping parents realize that life with kids doesn’t have to be overwhelming.

Many parents need help, at least at the start. Nannuka helps when work responsibilities make it difficult to care for children at certain times of the day or during family transitions and life changes.

Nannuka is the first online service in Athens that connects families with child care experts that are a good match. Since its inception, the business has served more than 10,000 families, helping parents find babysitters or nannies through a sort of profile-based program. Verified profiles help provide peace of mind and help parents trust that the platform is helping them find qualified and caring professionals.

Nannuka co-founder Lela Dritsa Psarros spoke to Balkan Business Wire about the company’s beginnings and its growth in Athens.

“It kick-started as the project of three entrepreneurs and mothers to turn their actual need to find trustworthy child care providers for their own children into a thriving online marketplace,” Psarros said.

Nannuka is now helping clients in multiple countries, with wins from international startup and marketing contests under its belt, she said.

"What makes Nannuka unique is its philosophy toward children’s safety and customers’ support, both significant factors of its trustworthiness and success,” Psarros said. “We strongly feel that happy children grow from happy parents with balanced professional, private and family lives. And what better way to do that, if not by partnering with trustworthy babysitters who take care of their children professionally, responsibly, with tenderness and creativity?”

The “Greek crisis,” Psarros said, did not make a real dent in the success of the company in pursuing its mission.

“Not that it has always been easy, but there is still a place for true needs to be met in the Greek market, and that is what our service offered: a filler to a gap that was there and one that we had our eyes wide open to see,” Psarros said.

Sometimes the company’s progress seemed like an uphill battle, she said. Even though each of the three co-founders has a business background, the dynamic nature of the region’s markets was nearly impossible to predict.

“We were growing older and wiser next to it as it was also taking shape next to us, with us,” Psarros said. “So our strategy was constantly re-evaluating the company to meet the ever-changing needs, while at the same time we weren’t moving an inch from our core vision and principles, which were to be helpful to fellow families, to make life with kids easier, and to find jobs for thousands of childcare experts in an easy, trustworthy and modern way.”

Psarros said the company received funding help from “some of Greece’s most strategic startup investors;” she mentioned one by name: Apostolos Apostolakis, owner of Venture Friends, who she said has been an “investor and mentor.”

Overall, the story of Nannuka is a Greek story, a story of a business rooted in this Mediterranean country, that found a need and expanded into a global marketplace to offer a service that is truly needed in an age where families are often finding their way one step at a time.