ActivityHero, Inc is an American company that operates an online marketplace for childrens' day camps and extracurricular activities. It provides software as a service for activity and participant management to small businesses and an after-school student information system for school districts.

ActivityHero
Founded2012; 12 years ago (2012)
Founder
  • Shilpa Dalmia
  • Peggy Chang
Headquarters
Services
  • Registration & Enrollment Software
  • Camp & Class Marketing
  • After-School SIS
Websiteactivityhero.com

History

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Shilpa Dalmia [1] is a software engineer who founded ActivityHero in 2012. The idea came about as she spent time looking for after-school activities for her two children in Silicon Valley. She met Peggy Chang[2] and Jenny Silva[3] who had created an online marketplace for summer day camps, and they merged to create ActivityHero. Chang stayed on to become a co-founder of ActivityHero.

Dalmia and Chandini Ammenini[4] pitched Dave McClure and Christine Tsai[5] to become one of 27 startups in Batch 4[6] of 500 Global (formerly 500 Startups) in spring 2012. In addition to seed funding from 500 Global, Deb Liu and Mike Greenfield[7] were angel investors.

The team added credit card payment capabilities in 2013, allowing families to register for multiple camps and classes with the same account. The payment and online registration system was also designed to be used by businesses on their website with a software widget.

In August 2014, ActivityHero raised a $2.2 million round led by Inventus Capital[8]. It set up it's first office Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, CA. ActivityHero's technical team was expanded with the acquisition of Zoetic[9] in December 2014 when Rajiv Makhijani and William Li joined ActivityHero.

By summer 2015, ActivityHero included more than 4,000 camp listings in the San Francisco Bay Area that could be searched by age, dates, category and other filters[10]. Local parents and SF Gate [11] noted that websites like ActivityHero filled a void and made it easier to find camps.

In 2019, ActivityHero launched a scholarship program[12] to provide financial assistance to over 1,000 camps and classes with one application. The program is funded by families who make a small donation while enrolling their children and by camp and activity providers who provide a reduced fee for families with financial need.

During the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, ActivityHero began to offer virtual camps and classes, conducted on Zoom and other video platforms. Common Sense Media[13], Parents[14], and other media sources nationwide cited ActivityHero as a resource for finding online camps for kids.

The company continues to be led by Dalmia and Chang. The software is now also used at school districts and charter schools to manage and staff after-school programs[15].




References

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  1. ^ Balfour, Jonah. "The Blogs: Five Female CTO's Who Are Dominating a Male Dominated Tech Industry". blogs.timesofisrael.com. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  2. ^ Hubbard, Linda (2010-06-04). "Last minute tips for selecting summer camp". InMenlo. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  3. ^ misbah (2010-08-03). "Employee Turned Entrepreneur – Jennifer Silva | Breaking The 9 To 5 Jail – Your Key to Freedom From The Cubicle!". Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  4. ^ Allison, Scott. "How To Get Into The Startup Accelerator, 500 Startups". Forbes. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  5. ^ "15 Questions with Christine Tsai". CNNMoney. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  6. ^ Lawler, Ryan (2012-05-09). "'May The VCs Be Ever In Your Favor' -- Meet The Next 500 Startups Accelerator Class". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  7. ^ "Mike Greenfield - Investor Profile | Connect with top investors". investorhunt.co. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  8. ^ "Venture Capital News: ActivityHero Scores $2.2M in Series A". www.vcnewsdaily.com. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  9. ^ Sullivan, Mark (2014-12-12). "ActivityHero acquires Zoetic to expand its activity planning service". VentureBeat. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  10. ^ "Camp Connection 2015 by The Almanac - Issuu". issuu.com. 2015-03-04. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  11. ^ Said, Carolyn (2014-03-27). "Camp searches, marketing streamlined with startups' sites". SFGATE. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  12. ^ "Over 1,000 Summer Camp Scholarships Available Through ActivityHero's Camp & Class Marketplace | The ActivityHero Blog". 2019-05-07. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  13. ^ Movie & TV reviews for parents. "Online Camps for a Summer of Learning Adventures | Common Sense Media". www.commonsensemedia.org. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  14. ^ "6 Can't-Miss Spring Break Camps for Kids in 2023". Parents. Retrieved 2024-12-03.
  15. ^ "21st CCLC After School Activities - Belle Chasse Academy". bellechasseacademy.org. Retrieved 2024-12-03.