Vanco, a leading provider of technology and payment solutions for the education, faith-based and nonprofit sectors, has acquired Smartcare, a growing provider of software for child care centers.
Founded in 1998, Vanco helps more than 40,000 churches, faith-based groups, nonprofits, schools and educational organizations to simplify administrative processes, organize events and securely manage participant relationships.
Smartcare was established in 2014 by a team dedicated to solving the challenges facing managers and owners of child care centers every day — from tracking attendance and accounts receivable to communicating securely and effectively with parents. Smartcare filled a gap in the industry by building a native cloud platform to offer modern software-as-a-service (SaaS) technology that is now used by more than 2,000 child care centers, from single locations to national operations.
“Since Vanco is driven by our mission to serve those who enrich our communities, we are very pleased to welcome Smartcare to our team,” said Shawn Boom, CEO of Vanco. “Smartcare’s best-in-class software solution for child care providers is a natural fit for us and will position Vanco for growth in our existing markets. We look forward to adding child care providers to the list of dedicated, community-focused organizations we serve.” He added that even as Vanco grows, it will continue to work in collaboration with its integration partners, who play an important role in bringing the right software to the right people.
Thanks to the support of investor Great Hill Partners, Vanco will have the ability to capitalize on the market potential for community services ecosystem providers, which is expected to reach $17 to $18 billion* within the next four years, Boom noted. “We think it’s smart positioning to build out our infrastructure to meet the needs of the community organizations we serve, and Smartcare is an important addition to that,” he said.
“From the start, we wanted Smartcare to have a positive impact on child care providers in our communities. We’ve achieved that by working with more than 2,000 providers nationwide,” said James Armijo, president and CEO of Smartcare. “As part of the Vanco family, we are adding even more development and client services resources — meaning we can help more schools and add new services sooner. I know Shawn and the whole Vanco team share our vision for serving child care providers and schools, while making attendance, daily updates, scheduling and payments easy for families. We can’t wait to get started as a unified team.”
As schools and workplaces have adjusted in response to a global pandemic, child care facilities have played a pivotal role in supporting the community, helping to keep both the workforce and economy moving. Smartcare’s online, touch-free solution has allowed child care providers to seamlessly communicate with families and track important details so they can focus on the health and safety of the children in their care.
Smartcare’s team will continue to be based in Las Vegas and Salt Lake City.
About Vanco
Based in Minneapolis and Atlanta, Vanco serves those who enrich our communities. Vanco provides community engagement capabilities, electronic payment and donation processing solutions, as well as software that enables educational organizations to operate more efficiently. Today, more than 40,000 churches, faith-based groups, nonprofits, schools and educational organizations trust Vanco to simplify administrative processes, organize events and securely complete transactions every day. Visit vancopayments.com to learn more.
About Smartcare
Smartcare is the leading provider of mobile-oriented, software-as-a-service solutions to child care providers, early educators, after-school programs and summer camps. Their mission is to solve technology needs for teachers and administrators with easy-to-use tools. Smartcare solutions include easy check-in and check-out experiences for parents, online registration and enrollment, scheduling, billing and payments, lesson plans, assessments and parent communication. Smartcare was sponsored by Charter Oak Equity and Lyrical Partners from its founding until the Vanco acquisition.
*Sources: Pew Research Center, Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Giving USA, Nonprofits Source, Vanco internal data, NCES database
