Care.com is an

online marketplace An online marketplace (or online e-commerce marketplace) is a type of e-commerce website where product or service information is provided by multiple third parties. Online marketplaces are the primary type of multichannel ecommerce and can be a way ...

for

childcare Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...

, senior care, special needs care, tutoring,

pet care Pet sitting is the act of temporarily taking care of another person's pet for a given time frame. It commonly occurs at the pet owner's home, but may also occur at the provider's home or at a pet sitting place of business or organization. Pet sitti ...

, and

housekeeping Housekeeping is the management and routine support activities of running an organised physical institution occupied or used by people, like a house, ship, hospital or factory, such as tidying, cleaning, cooking, routine maintenance, shopping, ...

through membership in a

two-sided market A two-sided market, also called a two-sided network, is an intermediary economic platform having two distinct user groups that provide each other with network benefits. The organization that creates value primarily by enabling direct interactions ...

place. The firm is based in

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

, with offices in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. The site has 32.9 million subscribers from 20 different countries.Rebecca Grant, �
Care.com raising $80M IPO to capture early (and massive) care market
” ''Venture Beat'', December 12, 2013. Care.com is also provided as an employee perk by 150 firms and organisations, including

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. The company raised $111 million in venture funding before going public on January 24, 2014. Care.com was bought by IAC in February 2020 and is no longer publicly traded.

History

Sheila Lirio Marcelo Sheila Lirio Marcelo is a Filipino-American entrepreneur. She is the co-founder and CEO of Proof of Learn, an education platform. Prior to Proof of Learn, she founded Care.com, an online marketplace for childcare, senior care, special needs care, ...

, who helped start the college savings site Upromise and was vice-president and general manager of

TheLadders.com Ladders, Inc. is a United States-based company providing career news, advice, and tools and an Recruitment, online job search service. Their search service only lists vetted job offers with annual salaries of $100,000 or more. History Ladders, or ...

, 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. Between October 2006 and the end of 2012, Care.com received $111 million in funding from investors including

Matrix Partners Matrix Partners is a US-based private equity investment firm focusing on venture capital investments. The firm invests in seed and early-stage companies in the United States and India, particularly in the software, communications, semiconducto ...

,Om Malik, �
Reid Hoffman invests in Care.com
” ''GigaOm'', July 30, 2007. Trinity Ventures,

New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With ~$25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of the w ...

USAA The United Services Automobile Association (USAA) is a San Antonio-based Fortune 500 diversified financial services group of companies including a Texas Department of Insurance-regulated reciprocal inter-insurance exchange and subsidiaries offeri ...

, and

Institutional Venture Partners Institutional Venture Partners (IVP) is a US-based private equity investment firm focusing on later-stage venture capital and growth equity investments. IVP is one of the oldest venture capital firms, founded in 1980. History While Reid W. Denn ...

(IVP). Immediately prior to founding Care.com Marcelo was an

Entrepreneur in residence An Entrepreneur in residence, or Executive in residence (EIR), is a position most often held by successful entrepreneurs in venture capital firms, private equity firms, startup accelerators, law firms or business schools. The EIR typically lead ...

, where she met with the founders of Sittercity.com and another website for finding

caregiver A caregiver or carer is a paid or unpaid member of a person's social network who helps them with activities of daily living. Since they have no specific professional training, they are often described as informal caregivers. Caregivers most commo ...

s, to discuss a potential investment and bringing Marcelo in as CEO. Matrix Partners did not invest in either firm and, months later, Marcelo founded Care.com and received $3.5 million in

Series A A series A round (also known as series A financing or series A investment) is the name typically given to a company's first significant round of venture capital financing. The name refers to the class of preferred stock sold to investors in exchan ...

funding from Matrix Partners, with

Reid Hoffman Reid Garrett Hoffman (born August 5, 1967) is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist, podcaster, and author. Hoffman was the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for prof ...

, co-founder of

LinkedIn LinkedIn () is an American business and employment-oriented online service that operates via websites and mobile apps. Launched on May 5, 2003, the platform is primarily used for professional networking and career development, and allows job se ...

also participating in that round. ''The Boston Globe'' reported on several allegations that Marcelo had met with other companies in order to use the information for starting Care.com. A spokesperson for Matrix responded denied any claims of "unfair treatment". When Care.com launched in 2007, it helped customers find babysitters, tutors, pet care and senior care. The site also offers other services, such as housekeeping and care for special needs children and adults. As basic members, users may browse, post jobs, and see select caregiver profiles for free, or they can enrol as premium members and pay a monthly, quarterly, or yearly membership fee to have full access to the site and all carers. For a monthly subscription, the site also assists users in finding work possibilities in their region by uploading a profile and applying to positions.. The firm provides a babysitting fee calculator to assist parents in determining how much to pay their sitter. It expanded its online marketplace into the United Kingdom in April 2012, followed after by Canada. In September 2012, the business launched Karoo, a private mobile social network that links families and carers that was later shut down. Care.com introduced Care.com Recruiting Solutions in December 2012 to assist care-related businesses in hiring carers and filling staff openings through the site. In June 2013, Care.com and

Knowledge Universe KinderCare Learning Centers is an American operator of for-profit child care and early childhood education facilities founded in 1969 and currently owned by KinderCare Education based in Portland, Oregon. The company provides educational programs ...

, 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. In November 2013, Care.com filed for an

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investment ...

with

Morgan Stanley Morgan Stanley is an American multinational investment management and financial services company headquartered at 1585 Broadway in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. With offices in more than 41 countries and more than 75,000 employees, the fir ...

, BofA,

Merrill Lynch Merrill (officially Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith Incorporated), previously branded Merrill Lynch, is an American investment management and wealth management division of Bank of America. Along with BofA Securities, the investment bank ...

and

J.P. Morgan JP may refer to: Arts and media * ''JP'' (album), 2001, by American singer Jesse Powell * ''Jp'' (magazine), an American Jeep magazine * ''Jönköpings-Posten'', a Swedish newspaper * Judas Priest, an English heavy metal band * ''Jurassic Park ...

as the joint book-running managers, and Allen & Company LLC and

Stifel Stifel Financial Corp. is an American multinational independent investment bank and financial services company created under its present name in July 1983 and listed on the New York Stock Exchange on November 24, 1986. Its predecessor company wa ...

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 The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the world's largest stock exchange by market capitalization of its listed c ...

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. In 2015, ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' reported a couple defrauded by a nanny who had cleared the site's background check process as well as other instances where families in the United States were suing the company for alleged negligence in properly conducting background checks, including two where the sitter hired was facing criminal charges over the death of the child they were hired to watch. In March 2019, ''

The Wall Street Journal ''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...

'' reported that the site listed

day care Child care, otherwise known as day care, is the care and supervision of a child or multiple children at a time, whose ages range from two weeks of age to 18 years. Although most parents spend a significant amount of time caring for their child(r ...

providers as licensed in their state when they were not, and that in one of the providers two children had drowned and at another, children had been physically and sexually abused. Care.com responded by eliminating unverified childcare listings created automatically but never claimed by the facility owner from the site and strengthening member screening procedures. In December 2019, IAC announced that it will acquire Care.com for $15 per share, a 13.2% premium over the company's most recent closing price of $13.25, in a deal worth about $500 million. As part of the deal, IAC executive Tim Allen became CEO of Care.com when the acquisition was completed in February 2020, at which point Care.com ceased trading on the

NYSE The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE, nicknamed "The Big Board") is an American stock exchange in the Financial District, Manhattan, Financial District of Lower Manhattan in New York City. It is by far the List of stock exchanges, world's largest s ...

Acquisitions

Awards

In 2013, the Care.com app Karoo received a

Webby Award The Webby Awards are awards for excellence on the Internet presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. Categories include ...

under the social (handheld devices) category. The app was later withdrawn.Karoo home page
" ''Care.com web site''

References

{{IAC 2006 establishments in Massachusetts Health care companies based in Massachusetts American companies established in 2006 Health care companies established in 2006 Internet properties established in 2007 2013 initial public offerings 2020 mergers and acquisitions Companies formerly listed on the New York Stock Exchange Companies based in Waltham, Massachusetts American health websites IAC (company)