OAKLAND, Calif., July 24, 2024 — Joy, a new parenting tech platform offering 24/7 expert-led support for parents, raised $10 million in seed funding led by Forerunner. Other investors include Magnify Ventures, David Heller, Wesley Capital, Obvious Ventures, Ogden Cap, Maywic, Rogue Venture Partners and WTI. Eurie Kim, Managing Partner at Forerunner, is joining the Joy board.
Joy offers a wealth of critical parenting resources in one place, providing families with immediate access to the help they need, when they need it. The company’s flagship product is Joy On Call, which delivers on demand personalized guidance to parents via SMS, leveraging real experts and practitioners, as well as relevant AI-powered insights spanning a range of Joy-curated and developed content.
Key Joy features include:
- Joy On Call: 24/7 Parent Expert SMS Support to contact certified experts, including sleep and lactation consultants, behavioral experts, and parent coaches.
- Joy Learning: a library of videos and articles that adapt to meet the diverse needs of families.
- Joy Shop: exclusive deals with trusted brands for ongoing savings.
Joy addresses an urgent need in today’s consumer market by consolidating and curating essential services to support the significant emotional and financial stress of raising children. Valuable early support like 1:1 lactation consulting, sleep training and other digital parenting services can cost over $3,000. This substantial investment, often out of reach for most parents, underscores the pressing need for a more accessible and comprehensive parenting solution like Joy, which consolidates these critical services into one affordable platform – priced at just $8 per month. Joy offers a variety of membership options, including monthly, quarterly, and yearly plans, allowing families to choose the solution that best fits their needs and budget.
Joy’s expert team includes lead expert Olena Dobczansky, the Clinical Program Manager at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York. Olena’s extensive background includes a decade in maternal child health and qualifications such as a Masters of Science in Nursing, RN-MNN (registered nurse, certified in maternal newborn nursing), and IBCLC (International Board Certified Lactation Consultant). The Joy expert team also includes certified sleep consultants, lactation consultants, social workers, and child development experts, all dedicated to providing comprehensive family support.
“We are dedicated to being a partner to parents everywhere, helping them navigate the ups and downs of parenthood with confidence and joy,” says Joy CEO, Alan Charming Chan. “No parent should feel isolated during this exciting yet often daunting stage of life,” says Emily Greenberg, Joy’s Chief Parenting Officer, reflecting on her struggles with postpartum anxiety.
The new funding will drive further development of Joy’s digital platform and expand its personalized services, ensuring comprehensive support for parents at every stage of their journey.
Current Joy families rave about the impact of Joy’s support: “Joy is amazing. I am very grateful to have a place where I can talk to real live people. The Google rabbit hole is a dark and scary place.”
Eurie Kim, Managing Partner at Forerunner, says, “as a mother of two young kids, I regularly feel overwhelmed with the number of new challenges that pop up daily. I have often wished for a place I could go to ask simple questions and get simple answers. Sometimes a quick fix from a more experienced parent can do the job, and sometimes I’m digging around for hours in the hopes of expert advice. This is a stress that the tens of millions of caregivers face every week, and to say it can be all-consuming is an understatement. At Forerunner, we seek to understand evolving human needs and work with visionary founders to develop new solutions that meet consumers’ shifting priorities. We see a profound opportunity to alleviate parental stress with 24/7 guidance, expert insights and digital services to transform how consumers navigate these formative and intense years.”
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SOURCE Joy
