Generation Start-up: UAE's Play:Date - the iphone app that finds friends for your son or daughter
Watching her sister raise four children and juggle the family’s budget with other tasks made Shamim Kassibawi wonder how she could help ease the strain for busy parents who wish to keep their children engaged.
It was also an issue among couples within her social circles.
“I was meeting persons who were the first couples to get married of their circle. While their friends were out partying, they were struggling to get play dates or the wife was not working and they cannot afford to send the youngsters to nurseries,” Ms Kassibawi says.
“The idea came to my mind for kids to make friends online and I started to think about how precisely to commercialise that.”
I'm so big upon this being an Arab software going to all of those other world ... We're a UAE-based app, we're Arab and we're female-led.
Shamim Kassibawi, Play:Date founder
The general public relations professional started conducting her general market trends and the effect was Play:Date, an interactive app that helps parents build their child’s social circle and will be offering deals through partner brands.
The Dubai app allows parents to create online profiles because of their children and hook up with like-minded friends for a play date.
Launched in March 2017, the app currently has a lot more than 3,500 subscribers, 60,500 swipes and has amassed 50 partner brands with functions in the UAE and the united states.
To create an account, parents can select details such as favored language, hobbies and activities, together with write a paragraph about the youngster.
Designed for children up to 12 years old, the iphone app allows parents to swipe to select a profile or swipe left to keep searching.
To generate revenue, the start-up offers free vouchers on goods and services from its partner brands to its subscribers.
The partner brands may then advertise on the platform to reach parents.
Before the coronavirus outbreak, Play:Date hosted free events for its members in cafes or play areas in substitution for a charge from brands wanting to boost their footfall or build awareness.
In addition, it engaged in “product seeding”, a online marketing strategy where brands use the platform to send surprise bags to focus on audiences.
However, for the “pro-community” social app, the pandemic proved to be a challenge as social distancing measures were enforced.
The virus ended most outdoor events, slashed companies’ marketing budgets, cut consumer spending and prompted investors to postpone their funding decisions until the end of the entire year, Ms Kassibawi says.
However, in addition, it presented an possibility to be creative.
“During Covid-19 we developed a fresh income model,” Ms Kassibawi says. “People and nurseries can use our digital platform. So, for example, a nursery with a summer programme can set up its newsletter on the platform.”
Play:Date also started out hosting live online entertainment events for children to keep them engaged and sent gift idea bags to families during Ramadan and on Mother’s Day.
While schools and nurseries in the UAE have yet to open, Play:Date has provided a significant outlet for socialising - an undeniable fact that investors took note of.
In July, the start-up secured $250,000 (Dh917,500) in seed funding in a round led by NY capital raising company Modus Capital.
Now the business is in talks with various venture capital funds for an additional $300,000 and intends to close the funding round by October, Ms Kassibawi told The National.
“That’s a whole lot of kiddie dates. We wish to make certain our tech is completely up to scratch as we proceed and accelerate our expansion in to the US,” she says.
“I’m so big upon this being an Arab iphone app going to all of those other world ... We’re a UAE-based app, we’re Arab and we’re female-led.”
The funds will be committed to technology upgrades, marketing, product innovation and recruitment.
“We plan to ensure 80 per cent of the team are women,” Ms Kassibawi says. “There [are] very little women in technology. We have an HR technique to hire women and mothers.”
Play:Date is also supplying a flexible schedule to working mothers and internships for many who took time off work and want to rejoin the organization world. The funds will also be used to expand operations in the UAE, with plans to grow to 50,000 subscribers by the finish of next year, up from 3,500 currently.
“By the finish of 2021, you want to be the intermediary connecting government entities and brands with families in the UAE,” says Ms Kassibawi.
In america, Play:Date intends to grow its businesses by hiring mothers to help market the brand.
The business also plans to expand into Egypt and Saudi Arabia by 2022 to capitalise on the large and mostly young populations. Egypt is the Arab world’s most populous country while Saudi Arabia is the biggest Arab economy.
“I’ve been speaking to Saudi investors and they think it could work in [the kingdom] and not simply in compounds,” she says, discussing expatriate communities. “People would want the vouchers too. It has been tough for families.”
Still, Ms Kassibawi admits there have been many naysayers along the journey of establishing the business enterprise and says she faced criticism along the way.
“A lot of individuals just didn’t see the value of it. One said ‘It’s Tinder for kids! What happened to meeting other kids in nurseries?’ And I say what happened to hailing a cab? Uber happened,” she says.
“I’m just simplifying the procedure. A lot of kids are homeschooled and after Covid-19, God knows if families will send their kids [back] to school in September.”
The founder took the criticism into consideration and carried out further research to increase the concept.
“One woman said ‘I’m not putting my kid on Tinder’ and you must take people’s feedback,” Ms Kassibawi says.
She says other mothers would approach her after events and thank her for hosting free gatherings - considering that people are actually more conscious of their spending.
“Not everyone are able to send the youngster to nursery,” Ms Kassibawi says. “We need to consider the complete UAE society and how to give back to families."
Source: www.thenational.ae
