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.
