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bloss is a U.K. startup that connects would-be or existing parents to pre-vetted parenting experts. It has now raised £1million in a pre-seed round led by Antler, the early-stage VC, and is also backed by angels including Silicon Valley entrepreneur Narry Singh, footballer Andriy Shevchenko and British-Jamaican entrepreneur Alexandra Chong. The funds will be used to launch the bloss app later this year.

The startup claims to have more than 95,000 users in 161 countries, with 530% growth and over 200 experts since launching six months ago.

Bloss is going up against existing apps in the space such as tinto, which is aimed at expectant mums and already has an app.

The company was founded during the pandemic by one of Uber’s first employees and a member of the U.K. founding team, Stephanie Desmond, whilst pregnant with her third child. Desmond had struggled with multiple IVF rounds to get pregnant, finding trusted expert advice was lacking. So perhaps you could call Bloss an “Uber for child-rearing experts”? Her co-founder is “mummy influencer” and reality TV star Binky Felstead.

On bloss, parents are matched with experts such as midwives, sleep consultants, nutritionists and child psychologists, to answer their questions within 24 hours.

Desmond said: “People want help but they just don’t know where to get it — the internet is a minefield of bad advice so we make parenting that little bit easier by democratizing access to hundreds of experts. From humble beginnings brainstorming around my kitchen table, we are now seeing a fast uptake of experts and users worldwide with an average growth of 88% month on month.”

Ollie Purdue, Antler VC partner, said: “Steph has grown the business exceptionally well in this initial period and we are excited to put all of Antlers’ resources behind it to help it reach more parents around the world. We see bloss being such a valuable product to many homes and we look forward to seeing the positive impact it will have on families.”