UK Startup Award winner helped by Essex researchers

A startup supported by Essex researchers to develop a groundbreaking app to help parents cope with the mental load of bringing up children in the modern world has won a UK Startup Award.

MOLO, the AI-powered ‘family operating system’, has won the Consumer Services StartUp of the Year Award for London with judges highlighting the partnership with the University of Essex.

The UK Startup Awards recognise the achievements of amazing individuals who have had a great idea, spotted the opportunity and taken the risks to launch a new product or service.

Through Innovation Fund support, researchers from the School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences and Essex Business School worked with the MOLO team to understand the potential importance and value of the app. They investigated the demands and consequences of the mental load in modern-day parenting, including the impact on wellbeing and the family unit.

Research has been undertaken on the mental load faced by individuals, but the Essex team filled the gap in trying to understand the way modern day families operate, how this contributes to the challenges they’re facing and how this feeds into decision-making fatigue and feelings of being overwhelmed.

The UK Startup Award judges said: “MOLO won because it is tackling a real and under served problem in family life: the invisible mental load carried by parents. The judges were impressed by its evidence based approach, partnership with the University of Essex, early validation through paid MVPs and ambition to become the operating system for modern family life.”

MOLO stood out as it is designed to manage the load of modern family life with its hero feature reading school letters, emails, WhatsApp messages, and images and converting them automatically into calendar entries and actionable tasks - removing the single most repetitive piece of family admin with zero manual work.

MOLO stands for MOdern LOad. The mental, emotional, and logistical demands of modern parenting and family life. MOLO exists to make that load more visible and easier to carry, through technology, community, and evidence-led thinking. It is designed to be a smart, emotionally intelligent and proactive support system that carries a family's modern load, so it doesn’t all live inside someone’s head.

The University of Essex Innovation Fund aims to offer agile, flexible funding tailored to project needs and targeted at supporting high-quality industry partnerships. They connect businesses, public sector organisations, charities and social enterprises to world-leading expertise and emerging talent.

The aim is to develop innovative solutions to the most pressing challenges, while building long-term collaborative relationships that drive tangible business outcomes.