It has also become Europe’s largest platform for nannying.
Rachel Carrell, a mother of three, said she was a "born and bred" Invercargill girl.
Delivered at Southland Hospital, she studied at Southland Girls’ High School and treasured her childhood as a place of strong community spirit where, despite it not having a vibrant nightlife, it was an "incredible place to grow up".
"It was such a safe place and provided a sort of normal upbringing. I guess everyone thinks where they grew up was normal, but I felt Invercargill really gave me this feeling."
She then moved to Dunedin where she studied politics and linguistics at the University of Otago before being awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to do a masters in international development at Oxford University, a dream come true.
"That was really the most transformative moment of my life because I really wanted to go to a great world university and the only way I could possibly go, was by winning a scholarship and I was lucky enough to win."
From that point, she started a successful pathway in the business world, which included working for global management consulting firm McKinsey & Company before becoming the chief executive of a health company which she said was generating £20 million ($NZ33m) in revenue yearly.
It was around that time Mrs Carrell became pregnant with her first child and soon after started to experience the difficult world of childcare in the UK.
"I realised how terrible the childcare system is over here.
"It's so expensive. For something that expensive, you’d think that when you're spending £20,000 [yearly] on something, it should feel like a luxurious experience but it doesn't at all. It's just incredibly exhausting, and awful."
Mrs Carrell said it was hard to find someone who was trustworthy and said sometimes it felt like it was "the Wild West".
"I remember having to patch together different solutions and everything was sort of word of mouth. There wasn't a kind of a service that you could just trust."
Her own experience led her to see there was a huge opportunity in the market, so she founded Koru Kids, a venture dubbed "the uber of nannies".
The service became Europe’s largest childcare platform. It now provides training, matching and support for more than 10,000 nannies across London.
She said the business was initially created for babies, but after noticing a huge demand from parents needing help for after-school childcare, the focus shifted to being the solution for parents who juggle parenthood with their careers.
"We've delivered 3.5 million hours of childcare now and, last year, we received over 120,000 applications across Koru Care.
"Every day, we pick up about 3000 children from school."
Mrs Carrell believed a large part of her business success was the huge emphasis on vetting and training.
"We check everyone's right to work, we check references, we do background checks and everyone has to go through compulsory training.
"We're also really obsessed with data and we have been able, over the past eight years, to really understand what makes a good nanny."
She said it’s not just about having a qualification.
"The qualities that make you a great nanny are things like being really proactive, warm, a team player, having a great positive attitude and being really willing to learn. Those are the things that actually make families very happy with their nanny."
