Finding the right talent and attracting people is among the main challenges that pre-school and daycare companies face, said panellists at News Corp VCCircle’s Education Investment Summit 2018 on Thursday.
A panel comprising Sridevi Raghavan, chief executive at Amelio Early Education; Priya Krishnan, chief executive at pre-school and daycare chain Klay; and Ashish Aggarwal, co-founder and finance chief of Footprints Childcare; talked about a range of issues about the two segments at the summit. The panel was moderated by Sonam Shah, pre-school head at Garodia’s Academy.
Aggarwal said that finding the right talent was extremely difficult and that parents often wanted good English-speaking teachers.
Raghavan said one of the biggest challenges while starting her venture was how to educate all stakeholders in an industry that is just beginning to take shape. She said most parents are first-generation users of daycare services.
In terms of children enrolled at the centres, Krishnan said the pre-school and daycare industry sees a larger churn than the K-12 segment. “We see 25% of our population churning out every year. It is a constant admission cycle.”
The panellists said that safety, trust, hygiene and good-quality early education are the key features that parents consider while choosing a pre-school or daycare centre.
Krishnan said pre-school and daycare is a hyper-local business and parents usually look for centres closer to home. She also said she looks at her company as an education consumer brand. Klay Schools had raised funding from private equity firm Kaizen and Peepul Capital.
Raghavan felt pre-school and daycare is a robust industry given that India has one of the youngest populations in the world.
Amelio is majority-owned by Babilou. Europe’s largest childcare group had acquired a majority stake in the pre-school and daycare chain earlier this year.
