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§ Private Profile · Miami, FL, USA
Online career marketplace connecting early childhood educators with preschools, daycares, and childcare centers, addressing staffing shortages.
Based in Miami, Florida, EarlyDay operates a dedicated online career marketplace that connects early childhood educators with preschools, daycares, and childcare centers to streamline the hiring process and address industry staffing shortages. Prior to its acquisition, the two-sided platform successfully scaled its user base to include a vetted network of 56,000 pre-screened teachers alongside more than 150 active school partners. The company facilitated placements for major enterprise childcare providers such as Bright Horizons before being acquired by Wonderschool in 2024 to expand its educational mission. At the time of the transaction, EarlyDay operated with a dedicated team of 14 employees. The startup previously raised $3.25 million in seed funding backed by investors including Alpaca VC, Struck Capital, and Revolution's Rise of the Rest Seed Fund. The organization was founded in 2020 by Emma Harris and Melissa Tran.
EarlyDay has raised $5.0M across 3 funding rounds.
EarlyDay has raised $5.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
EarlyDay has raised $5.0M in total across 3 funding rounds.
EarlyDay's investors include 14Peaks Capital, Alpaca VC, Double Down, exe, FJ Labs, Forefront Venture Partners, Gutter Capital, Ingeborg Investments, Matrix, Parade Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Precursor Ventures.
EarlyDay is a specialized career marketplace for early childhood educators, connecting qualified, pre-screened teachers with preschools and childcare centers to streamline hiring amid chronic staffing shortages.[1][2][4][5] It addresses high turnover rates—around 40% pre-COVID—by offering AI-powered matching, better job transparency on compensation and qualifications, and tools like one-click applications and hiring software, serving over 7,000 teachers and 150+ school partners including Bright Horizons in markets like New York, Houston, and Westchester.[2][3][5] The platform solves operational pain points for small, owner-operated centers (90% of the industry) by acting as an internal recruiting team, while empowering educators with tailored search filters for commute, salary, benefits, and philosophy.[1][5][6]
EarlyDay was founded in 2020 by Emma Harris and Melissa Tran, who previously co-founded GuavaPass, a ClassPass-like fitness marketplace in Asia and the Middle East in 2015.[1][2] The idea emerged when Harris became pregnant with her first child, prompting research into early childhood education (ECE); conversations with over 100 childcare owners revealed hiring and retention as the top challenge, with centers relying on inefficient sites like Craigslist and Indeed.[1][2] They launched a pilot offering to be internal recruiters for small schools, which gained rapid traction, leading to an official New York City debut in September 2021.[1][2] EarlyDay raised a $3.25 million seed round in 2022 from Alpaca VC, Struck Capital, Revolution's Rise of the Rest, and FJ Labs to fuel expansion into cities like Chicago.[2]
EarlyDay rides the wave of acute staffing crises in U.S. childcare, where 70% of centers under-enroll due to teacher shortages, exacerbated by post-COVID turnover and administrative burdens on owners.[3] Its timing aligns with rising demand for quality early education amid labor gaps, leveraging marketplace dynamics and AI to professionalize a sector reliant on outdated tools.[1][2][3] By improving retention and access, it influences the ecosystem—boosting center viability, family access to care, and educator careers—while integrating into platforms like Wonderschool via its 2024 acquisition, which amplifies solutions for scaling childcare nationwide.[3]
Post-acquisition by Wonderschool in March 2024, EarlyDay's AI hiring tech will embed into a broader childcare platform, accelerating staffing solutions and reducing burnout to expand high-quality care access.[3] Trends like AI-driven HR automation, government childcare initiatives, and employer-sponsored programs will propel growth, potentially evolving EarlyDay's influence toward national dominance in ECE talent pipelines.[3] This positions it to transform an underserved market, tying back to its origins in solving real founder pain points for sustainable impact.
EarlyDay has raised $5.0M across 3 funding rounds. Most recently, it raised $3.0M Seed in September 2022.
| Date | Round | Lead Investors | Other Investors | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sep 1, 2022 | $3M Seed | — | 14Peaks Capital, Alpaca VC, Double Down, EXE, FJ Labs, Forefront Venture Partners, Gutter Capital, Ingeborg Investments, Matrix, Parade Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Precursor Ventures, Serena Ventures, Teamworthy Ventures, Vayner RSE, Claude Johnson, Jason Robins, Jawed Karim, Marco A. Casas, Mark Cuban, Matt Turk, Michael Birch, Nate Cavanaugh, Rand Hindi, Roger Dickey, TIM Lenardo | Announced |
| May 26, 2022 | $1M Pre Seed | — | Fritz Lanman, Duro Ventures, FJ Labs, Hyphen Capital, Looking Glass Capital, Pareto Holdings, SuperAngel.Fund | Announced |
| Jun 1, 2021 | $1M Seed | — | Acequia Capital, BCF Ventures, Floyd Mayweather JR. | Announced |