LegUp

What LegUp does

LegUp is a Seattle-based, early-stage company building what it positions as the universal waitlist, enrollment, and payment platform for the child care industry. Founded in 2019, the company operates with a 1-10 person team and maintains a web presence at legup.care, targeting the operational and transactional layers of child care provision rather than the consumer-discovery layer alone.

The company's core proposition is to serve as industry-wide infrastructure — managing waitlists, streamlining enrollment workflows, and processing payments across child care providers. By framing itself as "universal" across the segment, LegUp signals intent to aggregate fragmented provider operations into a single standardized layer, potentially across multiple provider types, geographies, and ancillary stakeholders such as families, employers, and government agencies.

LegUp's go-to-market is implied to be a provider-led sales motion given the operational nature of its offering, though no explicit pricing, revenue mechanics, or named customer accounts are disclosed in the available source data. The company has completed at least one seed funding round ($1.135M from Ascend in December 2020), and leadership includes a CEO/founder and a co-founder/CTO. Substantial diligence gaps remain around customer traction, revenue, headcount trajectory, and competitive positioning within a child care technology landscape that includes established marketplace and benefits platforms.

Name

LegUp

Legal name

Kinside

Website

https://legup.care

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

LegUp is a Seattle-based, early-stage company building the universal waitlist, enrollment, and payment platform for the child care industry. Founded in 2019 with 1-10 employees, it targets child care providers as operational infrastructure.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Child Care Marketplace

NAICS

Child Care Services (6244), Child and Youth Services (62411)

SIC

Services-Child Day Care Services (8351)

akta.pro primary industry

Childcare & Eldercare Caregiving Platforms (BPAMAHAJ)

Keywords

• Child care marketplace
• Child care enrollment
• Provider network
• Employer benefits
• Waitlist management

Headquarters

HQ city

Seattle

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Digital Commerce or Content

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations

Revenue model

1. Marketplace transaction fees: Kinside connects parents with child care providers and likely charges providers for placement/match services. The marketplace model suggests transaction-based revenue where providers pay to be listed or receive bookings through the platform.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels3 records

Core offering

LegUp operates Kinside, a web-based child care marketplace platform that connects families seeking child care with child care providers. The platform offers real-time availability tracking across thousands of providers, comprehensive provider data management, one-click tour scheduling, and streamlined enrollment management. It serves four distinct user segments through separate interfaces: parents/families (self-serve discovery), child care providers (listing and enrollment management), employers (child care benefits programs integrated with UrbanSitter), and government agencies (real-time child care data for community planning).

Product overview

Kinside is a unified child care marketplace platform that connects families seeking care with child care providers. The platform serves multiple segments including parents (who can search for and enroll in care), child care providers (who can manage enrollments and connect with families), employers (offering child care benefits to employees), and government agencies (accessing real-time child care data). The core Kinside product serves as the central marketplace connecting all four user segments.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Kinside Marketplace Platform (For Parents) A web-based child care marketplace platform for parents and families that provides real-time availability at thousands of child care providers, comprehensive provider data, one-click tour scheduling, and streamlined enrollment management. Free for parents to search and discover care across U.S. markets.
• Kinside for Child Care Providers A provider-facing platform enabling child care centers, preschools, and family care providers to list availability, manage inquiries, handle enrollments, and connect with families seeking care. Self-reported outcome: 100% of providers say it helps them save hours every week.
• Kinside Employer Program An enterprise offering integrated within the UrbanSitter benefits platform that enables companies to provide child care support as an employee benefit. Targets HR/benefits teams at corporate employers seeking to support working families.
• Kinside for Government A data offering for government agencies providing real-time child care availability data at the county level, covering up to 80% of local provider inventory. Supports community planning and improved outcomes for families.

Quantifiable outcome

• 100% of providers say Kinside helps them save hours every week
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers3 records

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles4 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature3 records

Partnerships

One partnership is on record.

• UrbanSittercoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 April 2023UrbanSitter acquired Kinside and integrated it into their child care benefits platform. The partnership combines Kinside's provider marketplace technology with UrbanSitter's employer child care benefit offerings. Kinside operates as a distinct brand within the UrbanSitter portfolio, with the website redirecting to benefits.urbansitter.com for employer programs.

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves3 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Direct peers

• Care.com: Care.com is the largest online marketplace connecting families with child care providers (sitters, nannies, daycares), directly competing with Kinside on parent-facing discovery, matching, and marketplace commission revenue.
• UrbanSitter: UrbanSitter acquired Kinside in April 2023 and operates a sitter/child care marketplace plus employer benefits programs; it is both the acquirer and the closest operational peer given overlapping marketplace plus employer channel model.
• Winnie: Winnie is a child care marketplace providing parents with daycare/preschool listings, availability data, and provider reviews; it overlaps Kinside's core parent and provider use cases.
• Sittercity: Sittercity is an online marketplace for babysitters, nannies and child care providers serving parents and employer benefits programs; comparable on the parent-facing marketplace and employer channel dimensions.

Emerging players

• Huckleberry: Huckleberry offers a child care platform with real-time availability and one-click booking/tour scheduling, directly mirroring Kinside's core product positioning for parents and providers.
• Cleo: Cleo is a B2B family benefits platform offering employers child care, parental leave and elder care support; comparable to Kinside's employer channel and benefits infrastructure ambition.
• Wellthy: Wellthy provides a care concierge platform for employers serving child care, elder care and family logistics; it overlaps Kinside's employer family-support use case but extends beyond child care.
• Papa: Papa is a marketplace platform connecting older adults and families with 'Papa Pals' for companion care and family support; it parallels Kinside's caregiver marketplace model in a different care vertical and increasingly via employer/Medicare benefits.

Broad incumbents

• Bright Horizons: Bright Horizons is the largest U.S. operator of employer-sponsored child care centers and back-up care; it competes on the employer benefits channel where Kinside also plays, but as a provider rather than a marketplace.
• KinderCare Learning Companies: KinderCare operates thousands of child care centers nationwide and competes for the same parents and employer-sponsored child care relationships, but as a vertically integrated provider rather than a software marketplace.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat3 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/legupcare

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles2 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about LegUp