Tigers Childcare raises €5M
28th January 2020
Tigers Childcare has secured a €5 million capital injection from DunPort Capital Management to help fuel its expansion in Ireland and the UK.
With 13 centres in Dublin and Meath, Tigers Childcare is one of the largest childcare providers in Ireland, catering for 1250 children and employing 162 staff.
Next month it will open its first overseas facility in London as part of a new urban regeneration project in Elephant and Castle. This follows a successful tender win to operate a new 7,000 sq.ft centre owned by multinational property group, Lendlease.
DunPort Capital Management will provide funding by way of debt capital to help support the company’s expansion in the greater Dublin and London region where demand for high-quality childcare is very strong. DunPort is an Irish-owned and managed asset management platform founded in 2017 by Pat Walsh and Ross Morrow, former senior executives of BlueBay Asset Management. It has so far deployed over €500m in debt capital across a wide range of industries in support of growth and acquisition initiatives.
Founder and managing director of Tigers Childcare, Karen Clince (pictured) said: “The capital support and expert advice from DunPort, combined with its track record in supporting high-growth SMEs make it the perfect fit for us. Our plan is to continue to build on the number of Tigers Childcare centres in Dublin and its surrounds, through a combination of acquisitions and new centre openings, and cater for the increased demand for both full day care and after-school services. We also have ambitious growth targets for London where demand for our unique childcare model has proven very strong, with our first centre to open next month.”
The model used by Tigers Childcare is to exceed statutory requirements for childcare staffing. All staff are fully qualified in early-years care and education with senior staff qualified to degree level. In the UK only 50 per cent of childcare employees need to be qualified.
An advocate of improved standards in childcare services in Ireland, Clince is chair of the Fingal Childcare Committee and acts as an advisor to many Government departments and voluntary bodies on childcare and early years education.
