Advance Venture Partners (AVP), the venture and growth capital affiliate of media group Advance Publications, has led a $17m series C round for US-based on-demand childcare provider UrbanSitter, Forbes reported yesterday.
VC firms Canaan Partners, Aspect Ventures, DBL Investors, First Round Capital, Menlo Ventures and Rustic Canyon Partners also participated in the round, and $1m came from about a dozen of the platform’s ‘power users’.
UrbanSitter runs an online platform that connects parents to available carers in their area, allowing them to book childcare quickly and efficiently. The company is present in 60 cities and has built a network of more than 150,000 caregivers.
Proceeds from the round will support Urbanitter’s expansion into new US markets including Atlanta, Austin and Portland, and the addition of a regular care option to the service. The round increased UrbanSitter’s overall funding to approximately $40m, CEO Lynn Perkins told Forbes.
DBL Investors led the company’s $15m series B round in 2014, which included Match Group, an online dating subsidiary of online media group IAC, as well as Aspect Ventures, Canaan Partners, First Round, Menlo Ventures and Rustic Canyon.
UrbanSitter had initially closed $1.8m in seed funding from First Round, Rustic Canyon, Menlo Ventures and unnamed angel investors in January 2012, before Canaan Partners led a $6m series A round in October the same year backed by First Round, Menlo and Rustic Canyon.