One of the first things Joan Nguyen did when she found out she was pregnant was get on the waitlist for a childcare facility.
"I didn't even know when she was due," Nguyen told CNBC. "That was just the way child care was done. You either got a nanny, [where] you interview people and you have to go through agency, or you entered into child care and put your child down on a waitlist."
Any parent can tell you that those waitlists can be incredibly long. Finding a place that's nearby, within budget, and that offers the specific type and level of care you're looking for can be akin to finding a needle in a haystack. If you've found that needle, chances are dozens of other parents, or parents-to-be, have as well.
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Despite her early efforts, Nguyen told the website that she ended up hiring a nanny for the first year of her daughter's life because they were unable to get off of the waitlist for their desired facility.
Now, she's hoping to help other parents more effectively maneuver the childcare quandary with her app Bumo.
In 2019, Nguyen launched Bumo with co-founder Chriselle Lim. Initially, Bumo began as a co-working space with on-site childcare, before evolving into a virtual learning platform during the pandemic. It wasn't until 2024 that the co-founders reworked their idea into an app.
The Bumo app connects parents in search of on-demand childcare with facilities and day camps that have openings and instant-booking capabilities.
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Since its launch, the app has been successfully used by more than 100,000 parents across 13 states, CNBC reports. Its network consists of 17,000 licensed childcare providers, for newborns through the teen years.
There's no membership or subscription fee for the Airbnb-type app. Instead, the business makes money by charging users a higher price than what the individual facilities would typically charge and keeping the difference. This setup, Nguyen says, allows parents to use the app only when they need it, rather than being forced to lock in to full-time enrollment they may not need.
While Nguyen says that the childcare problem won't be totally solved until additional, affordable care centers are opened, her app can bridge the gap by "help[ing] unlock inventory that's already there."
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"Maybe one kid is out for a week because they're on vacation, another kid's sick for three days, another kid has de-enrolled the middle of the month and the new kid doesn't start for another two weeks," she told CNBC. "All those spots can be put online so it can be bookable."
Recently, Bumo announced that it had secured $10 million in seed funding to help it grow its footprint in new cities and hire new employees.
"Our goal is to establish Bumo as the leading infrastructure for flexible child care," Nguyen said in a statement. "We want Bumo to be as integral to family life as Airbnb, Uber, and Instacart are in their respective fields. This funding empowers us to scale our operations and broaden our reach into new markets."
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Image: Shutterstock
