From tiney beginnings…

to the country’s largest & most popular childminder community

tiney's mission

At tiney our mission is to enable affordable childcare for parents, high quality early education for children and amazing careers for childminders

Our story

It all started in 2019 when, fresh from 15 years leading Teach First, tiney’s co-founder and CEO Brett Wigdortz OBE teamed up with seasoned tech founders Edd Read and John Newbold to solve the big problem on all of their minds: early years education was in crisis, families couldn’t access the care they so desperately needed, and children were starting school unprepared. "During my time leading Teach First I saw young children up and down the country who were starting school without the basic emotional, social and education skills to be school ready."

- Brett Wigdortz OBE, founder and CEO tiney

tiney has bucked the trend of the wider childcare sector, becoming the largest & most loved childcare community in the country

The UK is in the middle of a national childcare crisis fuelled by a huge lack of historical support for childcare workers and accelerated by the long term impacts of Covid on the sector. Despite this, tiney has emerged as the only part of the Early Years sector which is growing and supporting childcare workers as true professionals. There are now over 1500 tiney homes open or coming soon around the country, run by childminders from a wide range of backgrounds but all united by a mission to change children's lives. We are proud of our big, warm, vibrant professional community of early years educators; they are the heart of tiney.

tiney is now nationwide and accelerating towards our goal of a tiney home around every corner

With each tiney home that opens, more children can access a first class early years education and create life-changing bonds with their carers and peers.

Child in nature image with social purpose logos

Business with a deep rooted social purpose

At tiney, we believe that a high quality early education is the right of every child. We also know (and studies have shown) that improving childcare options for children impacts the whole of society. At tiney, we are enabling this social impact 3 fold; creating job opportunities for childminders, providing flexibility and choice for working families and delivering amazing early education for children!

As part of our commitment to social impact we have pledged to play our part in meeting the 2030 Global Goals initiative around Quality Education set by World Leaders. We are also proud to be part of the Meaningful Business Network.

tiney’s model is globally unique and award-winning

tiney was named one of the UK & Ireland’s 100 fastest-growing startups in the 2024 Sifted 100, and was a top-three finalist in the 2025 Global EdTech Prize.

We’re also a member of the Global Education Leaders Forum.

Meet some of our team

Our rapidly expanding team of more than 50 work from across the country (with a HQ in central London) and come from varied backgrounds in education, childcare, safeguarding, tech, media, customer service and more.

Brett Wigdortz OBE

Chief Executive Officer

Founder and former CEO of Teach First and Co-Founder of Teach For All and the Fair Education Alliance. Brett’s lifelong mission is to help every child access an excellent education.

Edd Read

Chief Technical Officer

Previously co-founder and CTO at Graze.com, Edd knows a lot about building tech and teams that put customers at the heart of the experience. As a new dad, he’s passionate about how tiney can enhance outcomes for children.

Viktoria Tchoudakov

Chief Operating Officer

With past roles at ZOE, Google, and McKinsey, as well as being a proud parent, Viktoria is dedicated to empowering childminders through her work with tiney, aiming to build a strong, supportive community for early childhood educators.

Matt Frenchman

Chief Financial Officer

After 17 years in banking, Matt now controls the finances at tiney, ensuring the delivery of our impact-driven mission to make transformative early years education accessible to every family. A dad of two, he is an ardent champion of mental health awareness and sits on the board of the youth mental health charity, Mind of the Student.

John Newbold

Chief Product Officer

John founded one of the UK’s leading design studios and led product design there for over a decade. As a Dad himself, John is passionate about building the type of childcare company he would want for his own family.

Sarah Silver

Head of Safeguarding

Sarah was the former Head of Early Years at Action For Children and has a long and impressive history in the early years sector, starting out as a registered childminder herself almost 20 years ago.

Marc James

Head of Quality, Learning & Development

Marc oversees the quality assurance of our childminders, our consultant team, and the community coaches programme that keeps experienced childminders and local communities at the heart of what we do. With over 15 years in early years, he’s passionate about the difference it makes for children and families. Outside tiney, he chairs the board at Creative Futures UK, a children’s creative arts charity.

Amy Farrell

Head of Customer Operations

With nearly a decade of experience in customer and operations roles at high-growth tech companies, Amy leads the teams that support childminders with everything from admin to growth, helping them build thriving, sustainable businesses — driven by a belief that great early education starts with great support for the people who deliver it.