Parentune: Technology eases parenting blues

Parentune is an online community of parents for real-time advice, support through its website, app

If you’re an expectant parent, looking for a playschool or anxious because of your child’s examination, and looking for advice, help is at hand. Here’s a start-up which helps with such issues.

Parentune is an online community of parents for real-time advice and support through its website and app. It offers solutions to problems varying from parenting, nutrition, education, child psychology, developmental milestones and behaviour, etc. 

The Gurgaon-based start-up recently raised an undisclosed amount from Kae Capital and Segnel Ventures. It had raised $500,000 from Kae Capital in February 2015.

Founded in 2012 by Nitin Pandey and Venugopal Pottu, the start-up plans to use the recently raised funds to launch the app in Hindi and other vernacular languages and invest in technology to focus more on personalisation. 

The company generates revenue through multiple sources. It has a tie-up with brands and charges them on the number of engagements it facilitates for them with parents. It also provides with pro-parent services which include value-added services for parents and organises meet-ups and workshops for them. ‘We expect to achieve cash break-even in 18 months, on a gross expense basis,” Pandey, founder and chief executive officer, says.

Each parent gets a personalised version of Parentune. Available on both Android and iOS, the start-up aims to reach 10 million parents in the next six-seven months from the current thee million. 

It has a 12-member team and plans to increase it to 14 by the end of this year. Reducing the response time to each query from a parent and reaching out to parents without mobile phones and the internet is definitely a challenge but could be solved through technology, Pandey says.