It's A Mom's World

Founding Years’ flagship brand, KLAY Schools, has established over 41 day care centres that function on-site or near work sites in four Indian cities. With a professional management at the helm, the company has created a templatised model that offers seamless service, agnostic of location and geography, making it easier for mothers to get back to work

- Divya M. Chandramouli

As the mother of a four-year-old, I’ve gained tremendous respect for my fellow parents as the struggle (alongside the joy, of course) of raising a child in this world is very real. Clearly, I’m not the only one, as people have taken to social media like never before to stop the slew of social judgment and more importantly, display an empathy towards every mom (and dad, if I may add) that exists; the stay-at-home mom, the working mom, the work-from-home and any other category I might have omitted. “Despite the urbanisation of India there are few support structures for nuclear families, especially, for working women,” rues Priya Krishnan, founder-CEO, Founding Years Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd. (Founding Years). Women in India represent only 24 per cent of the paid labour force, as against the global average of 40 per cent, according to a recent McKinsey Global Institute report. Krishnan, who returned to India after having spent over five years in the U.K., sought to set right the situation and contribute towards encouraging mothers to go back to work. Founding Years is the parent company of KLAY Schools, a chain of day care centres cum preparatory schools, with a presence in four Indian cities. Today, there are 41 KLAY Schools spread across Bengaluru, Delhi-National Capital Region, Mumbai and Hyderabad that offer day care, toddler schooling, Kindergarten-1, Kindergarten-2 and after school care.

In June 2016, the company received its Series-B worth US $16 million in a round led by Peepul Capital with participation from existing investors, Kaizen Private Equity. With these funds, Founding Years aims to establish KLAY Schools in Chennai and Pune, and look further to tap the potential of Singapore and Dubai, possibly by the end of this fiscal.

Taking a professional approach