Digital Mums raises £285,000 to help mums get back into work

Digital Mums, a social media skills training start-up which looks to get mums back into work, has secured £285,000 in a round led by M&C Saatchi founders David Kershaw and Jeremy Sinclair with additional investment from the Big Venture Challenge.

Launched in 2014 by Nikki Cochrane and Kathryn Tyler (pictured), Hackney-based Digital Mums seeks to “address the rising problem of maternal unemployment” by training media professionals to be part-time flexible social media managers.

Its programmes cost up to £2,000 and include 20 weeks of ‘live learning’ where mums get experience working with small businesses that need help with their social media; Digital Mums says that many of these mums go on to become permanently employed.

The business, which has 21 staff, is currently training its 300th mum and will use the investment to expand outside of London in 2016 and 2017.

It will also continue its model of reinvesting 10% of its profits to a bursary fund for low income mothers.

Digital Mums’ Kathryn Tyler said of the news:

“Maternal unemployment is a major problem in so many countries across the world. We have raised investment specifically to help scale our reach in the UK and crucially, to help us achieve global expansion.”