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Finland has one of the most celebrated and inspiring approaches to early childhood education by emphasizing play, discovery, and character development while preparing children for any K-12 environment. Consequently, Finland consistently ranks in the top-performing countries in the international PISA scores.
Kipinä (which means ‘the spark’ in Finnish) is a leading international preschool brand that adapts the foundation of the Finnish national curriculum for early childhood education and care to make it suitable for other nationalities and countries.
The successful, full-brand preschool features a proprietary, enhanced Finnish curriculum designed and developed for the 21st century. This proprietary nature of the curriculum guarantees a high level of education anywhere in the world and cuts out any imitators.
Proven in global markets
Starting with a proof-of-concept school in the United Arab Emirates in 2015, Kipinä tested its program on ex-pat and local children from more than fifty nationalities. That first school was profitable in the first year of operation and has been at full occupancy ever since.
The preschool brand began franchising in 2017. Despite two years of COVID-19, Kipinä nurseries and preschools can now be found in 13 countries with 17 full-brand schools in operation and dozens more scheduled to open within the next three years. Some franchisees are already opening second or multiple schools following their early success.
High-quality education with modern techniques and technology
Kipinä has enjoyed strong growth in the Middle East and North Africa, Eastern Europe and Asia — all markets with strong population growth and a burgeoning middle class that values premium brands. In parallel, Kipinä’s unique academic program, which consists of scaffolded weekly lesson plans for children from four months to six years is available in English, French, Arabic, Russian and Azerbaijani and will soon be available in Spanish. All Kipinä preschools are bilingual and some are trilingual.
Apart from providing teachers with a full curriculum, weekly lesson plans and extensive resources, (all of which are embedded in an app), Kipinä trains and certifies teachers in Finnish pedagogy through its Finnish university partner, Häme University. This specially designed online post-graduate program is followed by an onsite pre-opening workshop and ongoing mentoring and academic support, underscoring Kipinä’s commitment to high-quality, play-based education.
Additionally, Kipinä’s custom-made software application tracks more than 250 skill indicators to monitor children’s development on a continuum. Parents are provided with a mobile application to access real-time video, voice, text and photo feeds of their child’s activity throughout the day. Communication between teachers and parents is simple, timely and frequent.
With access to extensive online resources including marketing templates, Kipinä franchisees can easily leverage collective experience. Many franchise owners go from opening to operating at full capacity within just 12 months.
What makes Kipinä a great franchise?
Whether they are single unit owners, area developers or master franchisees, Kipinä’s partners get extensive tools, training, support, software and apps. They enjoy high occupancy rates, premium prices for tuition, parent loyalty that generates repeat revenue each term or year and the added bonus of making a great contribution to their community.
At a glance
Year established: 2015
Number of franchised outlets: 17
Location of units: U.A.E., Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, Egypt, Morocco, Indonesia, Cambodia, Romania, Azerbaijan
Investment range: $250,000 – $1m-plus (area developer territory)
Minimum required capital: from $250,000 (single preschool)
Contact: Josh Baro, josh@kipinakids.com
