Envola, a startup based in Tarbes, in the Hautes-Pyrénées region of southwestern France, has developed a connected device called Pioupiou that records the exact hours children spend with their childminders, aiming to ease tensions between parents and carers over scheduling and pay. The company says 400 clients across 80 French départements have already adopted the device.
The device was created by Nicholas Church, an engineer and father who ran into the complexities of being a "parent employer" under French law, and Karin Lahittete Blanchemain, who spent 17 years working in human resources before working 11 years as a childminder herself. Now in its fourth version, the small connected screen is mounted on the front door of the childminder's home.
In France, parents who hire a registered childminder, known as an "assistante maternelle," legally become that person's employer, responsible for contracts, pay slips and recording hours worked, arrangements usually handled through the government's Pajemploi payroll platform and the CAF family benefits agency.
How the Pioupiou device works
Each day, a parent taps the screen twice, in what the company calls two "pops," to mark a child's arrival and departure. Beforehand, the childminder loads each child's contract into the system, including schedules, meal arrangements and any mileage.
Lahittete Blanchemain said that until now the process had been tedious and sometimes messy. She said Pioupiou creates a precise framework of trust that removes doubts and the discomfort of having to track every hour worked, so it no longer disrupts the relationship or the work around the child. She said the system makes everything clear for counting hours, calculating effective time worked, insurance purposes and the PMI, the French maternal and infant welfare service.
She added that the tool remains flexible. She said that if a childminder wants to allow a 15-minute grace period on drop-off or pick-up, she can set that tolerance, and only time beyond it is counted.
From daily taps to monthly paperwork
At the end of each month, the data collected daily is compiled into a presence sheet with three columns: the hours set out in the contract, the child's actual time present, and the difference between the two.
Lahittete Blanchemain said the relationship to work changes so that childminders can focus more on the children in their care. She said Envola builds a bridge between the employer and the professional. An app also generates a declaration form based on the recorded data, she said, making it easier for parents to file with the CAF through Pajemploi.
She said that in 90 percent of cases, it is the childminders who prepare the pay slips even though it is the parents who are legally the employers. With Pioupiou, she said, the effort is shared and everything is archived.
Growth since founding in 2024
Envola was founded in November 2024, starting, in Lahittete Blanchemain's words, from a blank page. The company now counts 400 clients using the Pioupiou across 80 French départements, including some shared childminder facilities known as MAMs.
The device is manufactured in Europe and packaged and shipped by Esat des Trois Soleils, a sheltered workshop for disabled workers based in Bordères. The subscription costs 15 euros a month regardless of the number of children looked after, with no long-term commitment, or 30 euros a month for MAMs.
Eight people now work alongside Karin and Nicholas at Envola.
Lahittete Blanchemain admitted that asking parents to badge in and out had initially felt like a bold step. But she said it ultimately helps to value and professionalize the job while adding comfort. She said there is already so much to do to properly care for children that reclaiming this time for oneself matters.
