Care.com is a public corporation headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts (just outside of Boston), that helps families find child care, senior care, special needs care, tutoring, pet care, housekeeping, etc. The site has 9.7 million members across 16 countries, and attracts 6.4 million unique visitors a month, with a new job posted every 30 seconds. It has raised $111 million in venture funding and went public on January 24, 2014.
History
Sheila Lirio Marcelo helped start the college savings site Upromise and was vice-president and general manager of TheLadders.com. Marcelo came up with the idea for Care.com when she had trouble finding someone to help care for her first child. Then her father had a heart attack while he was caring for her second child, and she had difficulty finding care for him in addition to child care.
When Care.com launched in 2007, it helped customers find babysitters, tutors, pet care and senior care. The site has since expanded to offer other services, such as housekeeping and care for military families and special needs children and adults. Users can search, post jobs and look at caregiver profiles for free. Then they can pay a monthly, quarterly or yearly subscription fee to contact caregivers and get background checks. The site also helps people find job opportunities in their area by posting a free profile and applying to openings. The company offers a babysitting rate calculator that helps parents calculate what to pay their sitter.
Care.com is also offered as an employee benefit by 150 companies and organizations, such as Google and Facebook.
It expanded its online marketplace into the United Kingdom in April 2012, followed after by Canada. The company debuted Karoo, a private mobile social network that connects families and caregivers, in September 2012.
In December 2012, Care.com launched Care.com Recruiting Solutions to help care-related businesses hire caregivers and fill staff openings through the site.
In June 2013, Care.com and Knowledge Universe, a company that runs child care centers throughout the country, announced a partnership, where Care.com corporate clients will have access to KU's facilities for backup care.
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Acquisitions
In August 2012, Care.com acquired Breedlove & Associates, a provider of household payroll, tax and compliance services for caregivers and families. Based in Texas, Breedlove is the nation's largest nanny payroll firm, processing more than $20 million in payroll per month for over 10,000 clients.
In July 2012, the company acquired Besser Betreut GmbH, a Berlin-based online care destination with customers in more than 15 countries, to increase international presence.
In December 2012, Care.com purchased Parents in a Pinch, a company that provides backup child and adult care services, such as when a nanny calls in sick.
In July 2014, Care.com purchased Citrus Lane, a company that offers subscription-based toy packages for families.
Funding
In October 2006, Care.com received $3.5 million in Series A funding from Matrix Partners, with Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, also participating in that round. It was followed soon after by another $2 million.
In 2008, the company brought in $10 million with Trinity Ventures.
In October 2010, the company raised $20 million from New Enterprise Associates, along with previous investors.
In October 2011, the company received $25 million in a fourth round of venture capital funding, from a new partnership with USAA, a financial services and insurance provider that focuses on military families and veterans.
In August 2012, the company raised $50 million in its fifth round of venture capital funding, led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), bringing the total to $111 million.
Controversy over the Idea
Immediately prior to founding Care.com Marcelo was an Entrepreneur in residence at Matrix Partners. While there, she and Matrix partner Nick Beim met with the founders of Sittercity.com and Sitters.com, two existing websites for finding caregivers which had been founded years earlier. The purpose of the meetings were to discuss a potential investment and bringing Marcelo in as CEO. Matrix Partners did not invest in either firm and, months later, Marcelo would found Care.com and receive $3.5 million in Series A funding from Matrix Partners, with Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn also participating in that round.
The situation has been cited as a noted example of VCs misleading entrepreneurs they meet with and using the information for their own benefit against the entrepreneurs. Mike Cravens, founder of Sitters.com, is quoted as saying that the meetings Marcelo and Beim had with him "were more than just a couple of meetings... the reality is that they did a deep dive into my company and then used that information to jump-start Care.com". Cravens furnished the Boston Globe with emails from Marcelo in which she tells Craven that she would not entertain starting her own business which would compete with Sitters.com.
Anne Raimondi, a spokesperson for Matrix, responded that: "We can appreciate that the companies in question do not like competition, but we do not believe that their claims of unfair treatment are at all merited because both Sheila and we said from the earliest discussions with these companies that we were considering competitive options and not to share any information with us that they were not comfortable sharing."
IPO
Rumors started in April 2013, when Care.com hired veteran public company Chief Financial Officer (CFO) John Leahy as its new CFO, raising speculation about an upcoming IPO. Leahy previously spent five years as CFO of iRobot and held CFO positions at three publicly traded companies prior to that.
In November 2013, Care.com filed for an Initial Public Offering with Morgan Stanley, BofA, Merrill Lynch and J.P. Morgan as the joint book-running managers, and Allen & Company LLC and Stifel as senior co-managers.
In December 2013 details of the IPO were first revealed, with January 2014 reports saying that the company planned to raise $85.6 million by offering 5.35 million shares, at $14 to $16 each, on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "CRCM".
On January 23, 2014, 5.35 million shares were priced at $17.
Care.com went public on January 24, 2014, with shares climbing to $22.55, up about 30 percent from its initial pricing.
It was the first Boston venture-funded technology company to go public in almost two years.
Care.com's previous CFO, John Leahy, left after he felt that the IPO was "complete".
Awards
In 2013, BostInno named Care.com to its 50 on Fire list.
In 2013, the Care.com app, Karoo, received a Webby Award, under the social (handheld devices) category.
In 2012, it was named one of the Top Places to Work by the Boston Globe.
In 2012, the Boston Business Journal named it one of the Best Places to Work.
In 2011, Care.com topped the list of the Fast 50 Asian American Businesses in the US.
The company won the 2007 Stevie Award for Women in Business for best new company.
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