YellowNest, founded by Kannan Ganga, is focused on making childcare more affordable so that working parents don’t have to choose between family and their job. They work with employers, parents, and nurseries to cut childcare costs for working parents by up to 41%. At the launch of Business for Impact, we spoke to Kannan about his company’s journey with Allia and why he chose to become a founding partner of Business for Impact.
What is YellowNest’s mission?
At YellowNest, we are committed to ensuring that no family has to choose between raising a family and financial security. We work with employers to make childcare affordable, by creating payment plans that save parents £400 a month on average. I fell in love with the problem of childcare about 15 years ago, from my time as a HR Director, where I saw valuable talent have to leave the workplace due to the cost of childcare. It’s a wicked problem, and I knew I wanted to tackle it.
How did YellowNest get involved with Allia?
I first came across Allia in 2020. The original business model for YellowNest needed to be adjusted as a result of COVID. A former Allia alumni suggested to me that I look them up, and after researching and subsequently applying I was lucky enough to get onto the ERDF Impact Accelerator programme. The accelerator came at a time when projects like this were not happening, so having this opportunity was really important for us.
How did YellowNest grow as a company after receiving support from Allia?
The mentor we had fundamentally changed how we operate. We were taught how to properly sell to all types of customers, which helped us set up successful relationships with clients across the UK, both big and small. Being self-sufficient on our own has been a big game changer. It means that we can focus on doing meaningful work by being profitable; we don’t have an investor that’s driving our profitability who would reduce us focusing on our impact. YellowNest has been averaging between 200% and 300% growth year on year, which allows us to focus on doing even more to make childcare affordable. All of this came from what we learnt in that accelerator programme.
Why has YellowNest become a founding partner of Business For Impact?
There’s an important role that organisations like Allia have, not just for us, but for the wider mission-led business community. It’s a safe shelter for ventures like us to grow in a careful and sustainable way, and that’s where Allia has stepped in for YellowNest and many other organisations, no doubt. Generally speaking in business, the odds are stacked against you. If you’re doing it as a mission-led business, which we are, it’s actually even harder. And so the role that Allia has is immense and vast in terms of opportunities it creates. It’s a force multiplier.
As for us at YellowNest, we’re just really grateful for Allia because it helped us get off the ground, and in our times of need they’ve stood by us. So it’s a pleasure to support Allia in its future growth by becoming a founding partner of Business for Impact. We’re looking forward to being part of the Business for Impact community and we’re delighted to support it as well, because our growth would not have happened without Allia. If you remember your great teachers from school, you’re grateful to them for life. We’re the same.