Kubilay Kartal and Emirhan Sözan both came to Norway in 2018 as political refugees from Turkey. When Kartal’s two children started kindergarten, he experienced a problem he had not taken into account.
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– I experienced cultural barriers and language barriers, even though I knew English. I thought that here simple digital solutions could be used to better integrate people into society, says Kartal.
In 2021, Kartal and Sözan decided to put the idea into practice, Daxap AS was founded and the concept was named Kiddy. The app now offers daycare/school-home solutions in 19 languages and is used, among other things, by 21 municipal daycares in the Søndre Nordstrand district in Oslo. Kiddy is also used by schools in the Netherlands, and is being tested in Germany and the UAE.
– When an immigrant comes to Norway with small children, as I have experienced myself, with Kiddy they can get everything in their own language. You may not know what “sleep time” or carnival is. In this way, you begin to understand what the system is like in Norway, says Kartal.
The startup recently raised NOK 4.05 million in an issue led by American Limex Ventures. In addition, Norwegian invests Lectus AS and a group of American angel investors. The valuation after the round is NOK 30 million.
– What differentiates Kiddy from a normal school-home solution with a translation function?
– This is not a translation app, it is a communication solution. It contains daily reports from the nursery, bedtime is recorded, there is a calendar and the like, says Anders Krohn, who became part of Daxap after the two founders sought another co-founder and investor through Linkedin. Today he is also chairman of the company’s board.
Two bottom lines
Kartal had both experience as a contractor and project manager from Turkey. Although the journey and road to capital has gone quickly, he does not take his success lightly.
– It is exciting, but it is not so easy to be an immigrant and an entrepreneur at the same time. We have received a lot of good help from Innovation Norway, Impact Startup, Connect Midt-Norge and several others. We have used funds and tools in the Norwegian system.
The start-up company is currently collaborating with several social entrepreneurs to develop new solutions. In addition, they collaborate with Sintef to measure that their solution actually produces results. In addition to Kiddy, Daxap has developed the project «Vibori.no», a citizen app that should make integration easier. This will now be used by Melhus municipality as the first customer.
– We want to contribute to society. For my part, it is a kind of repayment to society, says Kartal.
He explains that Daxap operates with two bottom lines and that they always try to achieve social results in addition to financial ones. Although he found the start-up itself to be easy, scale-up is both more expensive and more difficult in Norway, says Kartal.
Although chairman Krohn has lived in the USA for a long time and is involved in investments, it was via Kartal’s network that the company came into contact with the American investors who are leading the issue.
– As I have now learned, many people from Turkey have an incredible network and are good at meeting each other in all possible settings. I wish Norwegians were as good there, says Krohn.
Can’t wait for the Norwegian market
While Vibori.no is still at an early stage, the fresh capital will be used to expand Kiddy further internationally.
– A year ago, we envisioned growth as fairly linear. First Norway, then Europe and finally the USA. But you can’t just “take Norway” because the public sector tends to have long tender processes. Therefore, we have settled on different methods for Norway, Europe, the USA and Asia. We cannot wait for a market to open up completely, says Krohn.
A total of 35 people now work in Daxap, if you count hired consultants and developers. Seven of the employees are based in Norway.
