Ada Ventures is set to become the first investor in Europe to directly support founders in their portfolio with the cost of childcare.
The new scheme, which launches this month, will see the firm cover the cost of up to 40 hours of ‘back-up’ childcare each year. It follows research which shows parents are forced to take eight days off work each year due to childcare arrangements falling through.
Ada Ventures hopes the move will prompt other VCs to introduce better support structures for the parent founders in their portfolios, including childcare subsidy offerings and supporting founders with parental leave policies, helping level the playing field for entrepreneurs who are also parents.
The offering will be delivered via Bubble, an on-demand childcare platform headquartered in the UK and an Ada portfolio company. Ada Ventures has designed its offering to cover the gaps created by childcare arrangements falling through – such as through child sickness or nursery closures – alleviating an additional financial burden that can be particularly challenging for early-stage founders who happen to be parents.
The childcare allocation can be spent on any of the Bubble services, including verified babysitters, night nannies or holiday clubs.
“We’re committed to removing barriers facing founders,” said Check Warner, co-founding partner at Ada Ventures (pictured, main image, with her son Pip). “We’ve worked hard to create a culture which champions diversity and creates a level playing field for entrepreneurs looking to raise capital and scale brilliant ideas into thriving businesses.
“We don’t believe being or becoming a parent should put founders at a disadvantage. In fact, we think it can offer founders a huge advantage – one that most investors overlook.
“This childcare offering is a crucial step forward in our commitment to being truly inclusive VCs who enable every founder to reach their full potential. We want to set an example about how a company can embrace parenthood by actively encouraging and supporting parents in our team, portfolio and wider community.
“We hope this motivates other investors to follow our lead and make a tangible commitment to support the parents in their portfolios.”
The scheme will initially operate as a two-year pilot, including a review after the first year to ensure the structure and offering is working for parents. The team at Ada will be gathering data throughout the pilot to measure the impact the scheme has on founders and their teams.
Ada will also be introducing firm-wide guidance for portfolio companies around parental leave, creating a roadmap to help founders design maternity and paternity policies that work for them and to foster positive conversations with investors around founder parental leave.