Maasi Raises ₹6 Crore From Better Capital and Antler to Bring Trained, Verified Nannies to India's Working Parents

For millions of working parents in India's cities, finding a reliable nanny is one of the most stressful parts of family life. A Bengaluru startup born out of a parents' community is trying to bring structure and trust to a largely informal market.

Maasi, a childcare platform that trains, places and pays nannies, has raised ₹6 crore, about $630,000, in a pre-seed round led by Better Capital, with participation from Antler India, according to StartupTalky and other reports on October 27.

Angel investors include Rishikesh SR of Rapido, Vaibhav Khandelwal of Shadowfax, Sumit Khandelwal of Xoxoday, Siddhant Goyal of Crane VC and Sanjay Ramakrishnan of Multiply Ventures.

Born from a community of parents

Maasi was founded by Aashu Manchali, a former chief of staff at Xoxoday; Gargi Pandey, who previously worked at Cars24, MPL and Gameskraft; and Reshov Roy, whose background includes CapMint and Gameskraft.

The company grew out of Urban Parents Club, a Bengaluru community of more than 8,000 parents. The founders say they saw a gap in "reliable, accountable childcare" after hearing repeated concerns from parents about finding trustworthy nannies.

How Maasi works

Families browse caregiver profiles, have a video call with a shortlisted caregiver and then confirm the arrangement. Maasi collects the caregiver's monthly fee from the family and passes it on, acting as an intermediary that handles payments and accountability.

Caregivers complete a free training programme led by preschool directors, nurses and former airline cabin crew trainers. Six in ten candidates do not clear it, according to the company. Most caregivers are vetted before being introduced to families, and background checks through verification firms SpringVerify and OnGrid are run after a family selects a caregiver. Maasi also describes a psychometric assessment and weeks of in-person observation.

Pricing

According to Maasi's website, subscriptions start at ₹5,999 a month and on-demand care at ₹199 an hour. A day nanny for six to 12 hours costs ₹15,660 a month, a 24-hour live-in nanny ₹24,600, and a post-natal "japa" nanny ₹33,660. A governess service, offering English-speaking caregivers trained in screen-free engagement, starts at ₹35,660 a month.

Early traction

Maasi launched publicly on October 20, 2026, and says it built a waitlist of more than 4,000 parents within five days. It says it has served more than 1,200 parents through more than 500 caregivers and claims 20% weekly growth. These figures are company-reported, and the company has not disclosed how many placements continue after six months.

Rajiv Srivatsa of Antler India described Maasi as "exclusive by design."

The childcare gap

Childcare is a major challenge for working families in urban India. Joint families, which once provided childcare support, are less common in cities, and formal daycare options are limited and often expensive. Many families rely on domestic workers hired through word of mouth, with little verification, training or recourse if things go wrong.

The lack of reliable childcare has consequences beyond individual families. It is widely cited as one of the factors behind India's low female labour force participation rate, as many women leave jobs or reduce working hours after having children. Making childcare more reliable and accessible could help more women stay in the workforce.

Dignity for caregivers

Formalising the nanny market could also benefit caregivers, who are typically women from low-income backgrounds working in the informal sector. Training, verified credentials and regular, transparent payment can improve working conditions and earnings, and give caregivers a pathway to more skilled and better-paid roles, such as governess positions.

However, platform models in the care economy raise questions about how fees are shared between the platform and workers, and about workers' rights and benefits. Maasi's approach to caregiver welfare will be an important part of its impact.

A growing care economy

Investors have shown growing interest in the care economy, including childcare, elder care and home healthcare, as demographic and social changes increase demand. Startups are using technology to match families with caregivers, verify credentials and manage payments, building trust in markets that have historically been informal.

Use of funds

Maasi plans to use the funding to expand caregiver recruitment and training, build its technology platform and grow its team in Bengaluru.

The founders' approach

The founders' backgrounds in consumer internet, gaming and fintech companies suggest an approach grounded in technology and operations. Building a childcare platform requires both a strong digital product, for matching, communication and payments, and intensive on-the-ground operations, for recruitment, training and quality control.

Gargi Pandey's experience at consumer technology companies such as Cars24 and MPL adds expertise in scaling consumer-facing businesses. Women's participation in founding teams of care economy startups is notable, since many of the problems these companies address affect working mothers most directly.

Pricing and accessibility

At prices ranging from about ₹15,000 to more than ₹35,000 a month for full-time care, Maasi's services are aimed at middle- and upper-income urban families. Making professional childcare affordable for lower-income working parents remains a broader policy challenge, which may require government support, employer-provided childcare or community-based models alongside private platforms.

Lessons from other markets

In several countries, childcare platforms have grown by combining marketplace technology with strict vetting and training. Their experience suggests that trust, safety and caregiver retention are the most important factors for success, and that companies that invest in caregiver welfare tend to achieve better retention and service quality. Regulation of domestic work and childcare also shapes how such businesses operate, and policy attention to the care economy in India is likely to grow as more women enter the workforce.

What comes next

Maasi's challenge will be to scale while maintaining the quality and trust that are central to its proposition. Childcare is a deeply personal service, and a single incident can damage a brand's reputation. Retention of caregivers and families, and the economics of training and placement, will determine whether the model can expand beyond Bengaluru.

For India's working parents, and particularly for working mothers, the emergence of structured childcare services offers hope of a more reliable support system, and for caregivers, the prospect of more dignified and secure work. Parents' communities, employers and policymakers will be watching closely, since accessible, trustworthy childcare could play an important role in helping more Indian women build careers without having to choose between work and family. For Maasi's founders, the next year will show whether a community-born idea can become a scalable, sustainable business.