Parents relieved: bankrupt babysitting app Charly Cares makes a fresh start

Charly Cares was granted a moratorium on payments early last week and was declared bankrupt on Tuesday, confirms curator André Jansen. "The bankruptcy is the result of a combination of factors," he says. "Due to corona, the demand for babysitters temporarily dropped sharply. The company was then hit by an overheated labor market and inflation."

The tight labor market made it harder to find babysitters. After all, they could easily find work elsewhere, Jansen explains. "Moreover, babysitting costs increased as a result of rising wages. And inflation also made outings much more expensive in recent years. Including the higher costs for a babysitter, a 'night out' became very expensive," according to the curator.

Charly Cares was founded in 2016 by young entrepreneurs Charly van der Straten (photo) and Xander Koenen. They built an app where parents could book carefully selected babysitters for their children. Users could also leave and read reviews via the app, and register times and costs.

At the end of 2021, the company started a crowdfunding, with which it eventually raised 1.2 million euros from investors. The babysitting service also received a loan from Rabobank.

The ambitions were considerable. "Our big dream is to launch in Europe," co-founder Koenen said at the end of 2021. Within a year and a half, the service should be available in the first foreign European cities.

In March 2023, co-founder Van der Straten said in an interview with business magazine MT/Sprout that the time for rapid growth had arrived. "It's showtime; finally focus on full national coverage (...) and the accelerated rollout of our business services. We are going to step on the gas, without rookie mistakes."

At the time, the company said it had 20 employees, tens of thousands of monthly users and 16,000 select nannies.

However, the most recent annual accounts in the register of the Chamber of Commerce (KvK) show that Charly Cares was already not in a strong financial position at the time. According to the 2023 report, the company closed the previous year with negative equity of almost 1.7 million euros. This made the company, as they say, 'technically bankrupt'.

By the end of 2023, the situation had not improved much, with a negative equity of over 1.5 million euros. Nevertheless, directors Van der Straten and Koenen wrote in the report that they assumed that the company would be able to continue to exist.

According to the annual accounts, which were only approved and filed with the Chamber of Commerce in December 2024, the babysitting company was working on a major debt restructuring at the end of last year. This should drastically improve the company's financial position. Cost-saving measures had also been implemented.

Curator Jansen confirms that the company was busy restructuring its debts, first through a so-called whoa procedure, and later through the court. "But that ultimately failed. As a result, the company had to apply for a suspension of payments. After the bankruptcy, an agreement was reached on a restart under new owners Pieter Verhagen and Martijn Meijer. However, the founders and employees will remain involved in the company."

According to curator Jansen, part of the proceeds from the sale of the activities will go to Rabobank. "A good deal was made about the sale. Because the bank had securities, part of the proceeds will go there. Unfortunately, the deal was not good enough for the crowdfunders to get their money back."